THE  PHILOSOPHY 


OP 


THE   HUMAN   YOICE: 


EMBRACING    ITS 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  HISTORY; 

TOGETHER   WITH   A 

SYSTEM  OF  PRINCIPLES, 


BY     WHICH 


CRITICISM  IN  THE  ART  OF  ELOCUTION 

MAY    BE    RENDEKED    INTELLIGIBLE, 
AND 

INSTRUCTION,  DEFINITE  AND  COMPREHENSIVE. 

TO    WHICH   IS    ADDED 

A   BRIEF   ANALYSIS 

OF 

SOIVCJ  AlVD  RECITATIVE. 
BY   JAMES   RUSH,    M.  D. 

FOURTH  EDITION,  ENLARGED. 

PHILADELPHIA : 
LIPPINCOTT,    GRAMBO,   &    CO. 

LONDON:  TRUBNER  &  CO. 
1855. 


.^^  if  \ 


Entered,  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855, 

BY  JAMES  RUSH,  M.  D., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District  of 

PennsylTania. 

<«■»» 


CRISSY  t  MARKLEY,  PRIKTEB3, 
Goldsmiths  Uall,  Library  St. 


CONTENTS. 


A\(o?. 


? 


INTRODUCTION, 
SECTION     I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 


VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 


IX. 
X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 


Of  the  General  Divisions  of  Vocal  Sound,  livitli  a 
more  particular  account  of  its  Pitch, 

Of  the  Radical  and  Vanishing  movement ;  and  its 
different  form  in  Speech,  Song,  and  Recitative, 

Of  the  Elementary  Sounds  of  the  English  Lan- 
guage ;  -with  their  relations  to  the  Radical  and 
Vanish, 

Of  the  Influence  of  the  Radical  and  Vanish,  in 
the  production  of  the  various  phenomena  of 
Syllables, 

Of  the  Causative  Mechanism  of  the  Voice,  in 
relation  to  its  different  Qualities, 

Of  the  Expression  of  Speech, 

Of  the  ritch  of  the  Voice, 

Of  the  Melody  of  Speech ;  with  an  inquiry 
hovr  far  the  terms  Key  and  Modulation  arc 
applicable  to  it. 

Of  the  Quality  or  Kind  of  Voice, 

Of  Abruptness  of  the  Voice, 

Of  the  Time  of  the  Voice, 

Of  the  Intonation  at  Pauses, 

Of  the  Grouping  of  Speech, 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Octave, 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Fifth, 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Third, 

Of  the  Intonation  of  Interrogative  Sentences, 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Second, 


Page. 

27 

49 

66 


79 


94 

106 
132 
138 


143 
162 
168 
166 
190 
198 
206 
208 
210 
213 
243 


iv  CONTENTS. 

SECTION      XIX.  Of  the  Interval  of  the  Kising  Semitone ;  and  of 

the  Chromatic  Melody  founded  thereon,  247 

XX.  Of  the  Downward  Radical  and  Vanish,  258 

XXI.  Of  the  Downward  Octave,  262 

XXII.  Of  the  Downward  Fifth,  26S 

XXIII.  Of  the  Downward  Third,  266 

XXIV.  Of  the  Downward  Second  and  Semitone,  270 

XXV.  Of  the  Wave  of  the  Voice,  272 
XXYI.         Of  the  Equal- Wave  of  the  Octave,  278 

XXVII.  Of  the  Equal- Wave  of  the  Fifth,  279 

XXVIII.  Of  the  Equal- Wave  of  the  Third,  280 

XXIX.  Of  the  Equal-Wave  of  the  Second,  281 

XXX.  Of  the  Equal-Wave  of  the  Semitone,  289 

XXXI.  Of  the  Wave  of  unequal  Intervals,  291 

XXXII.  Of  the  Intonation  of  Exclamatory  Sentences,  299 

XXXIII.  Of  the  Tremor  of  the  Voice,  310 

XXXIV.  Of  Force  of  Voice  320 

XXXV.  Of  the  Radical  Stress,  323 

XXXVI.  Of  the  Median  Stress,  328 

XXXVII.  Of  the  Vanishing  Stress,  332 

XXXVIII.  Of  the  Compound  Stress,  334 

XXXIX.  Of  the  Thorough  Stress,  335 
XL.  Of  the  Loud  Concrete,  338 
XLL  Of  the  Time  of  the  Concrete,  339 
XLII.  Of  the  Aspiration,  340 
XLIII.  Of  the  Emphatic  Vocule,  344 
XLIV.  Of  the  Guttural  Vibration,  346 
XLV.  Of  Accent,  347 
XLVI.           Of  Emphasis,  353 

Of  Emphasis  of  Quality,  854 

Of  Emphasis  of  Force,  355 

Of  the  Radical  Emphasis,  356 

Of  the  Median  Emphasis,  357 

Of  the  Vanishing  Emphasis,  358 

Of  the  Compound  Emphasis,  359 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Thorough  Stress,  and 

the  Loud  Concrete,  360 

Of  the  Aspirated  Emphasis,  ib. 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION      XLVI.  Of  the  Emphatic  Vocule, 

Of  the  Guttural  Emphasis, 
Of  the  Temporal  Emphasis, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  Pitch, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Eising  Octave, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising  Fifth, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising  Third, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising  Semitone. 
Of  the  Downward  Concrete, 
Of  the  Downward  Octave, 
Of  the  Downward  Fifth, 
Of  the  Downward  Third, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Wave, 
Of  the  Equal-Single  Wave  of  the  Octave. 
Of  the  Equal-Single  Wave  of  the  Fifth. 
Of  the  Unequal-Single  Wave, 
Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Tremor, 
A  Recapitulating  View  of  Emphasis, 
,  XLVII.  Of  the  Drift  of  the  Voice, 

Of  the  Diatonic  Drift, 
Of  the  Drift  of  the  Semitone, 
Of  the  Drift  of  the  Downward  Vanish, 
.     Of  the  Drift  of  the  Wave  of  the  Second, 
Of  the  Drift  of  the  Wave  of  the  Semitone, 
Of  the  Drift  of  Quantity, 
Of  the  Drift  of  Force, 
Of  the  Drift  of  the  Loud  Concrete, 
Of  the  Drift  of  Median  Stress, 
The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Tremor, 
The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Aspiration, 
The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Guttural  Vibration, 
The  Partial  Drift  of  Interrogation, 
The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Phrases  of  Melody, 
XLVIII.        Of  the  Vocal  Signs  of  the  Passions, 

Of  the  Passions  or  Emotions  indicated, 
By  the  Piano  of  the  Voice, 
By  the  Forte  of  the  Voice, , 
By  Quickness  of  Voice, 


361 
362 
ib. 
364 
360 
368 
369 
370 
372 
374 
375 
376 
378 
370 
381 


S85 
393 
394. 
395 
ib- 
ib. 
396 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
397 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
ib. 
398 
401 

410 
ib. 
ib. 


yi  CONTENTS. 

SECTION      XLYIII.        By  Slowness  of  Voice,  411 

By  Quality  of  Voice,  ib. 

By  the  Semitone,  ib. 

By  the  Second  or  Tone,  ib. 

By  the  Rising  Third,  Fifth  and  Octave,  412 

By  the  Downward  Third,  Fifth  and  Octave,  ib. 

By  the  Wave  of  the  Semitone,  413 

By  the  Wave  of  the  Second,  ib. 

By  the  Waves  of  the  Third,  Fifth  and  Octave,  ib. 

By  the  Radical  Stress,  414 

By  the  Median  Stress,  ib. 

By  the  Vanishing  Stress,  415 

By  the  Compound  Stress,  ib. 

By  the  Thorough  Stress,  ib. 
By  the  Tremor  of  the  Second,  and  wider  intervals,  ib. 

By  the  Tremor  of  the  Semitone,  416 

By  the  Aspiration,  ib. 

By  the  Guttural  Vibration,  ib. 

By  the  Emphatic  Vocule,  4i7 

By  the  Broken  Melody,  ib. 

XLIX.               Of  the  Mode  of  Instruction  in  Elocution,  421 

Of  Practice  on  the  Alphabetic  Elements,  424 

Of  Practice  on  the  Time  of  Elements,  428 

Of  Practice  on  the  Vanishing  Movement,  429 

Of  Practice  on  Force,  430 

Of  Practice  on  Stress,  ib. 

Of  Practice  on  Pitch,  431 

Of  Practice  on  Melody,  433 

Of  Practice  on  the  Cadence,  ib. 

Of  Practice  on  the  Tremor,  434 

Of  Practice  on  Quality  of  Voice,  ib. 

Of  Practice  in  Rapidity  of  Speech,  430 

L.                   Of  the  Rythmus  of  Speech,  443 

LI.                 Of  the  Faults  of  Readers.  4.54 

Of  the  Faults  in  Quality,  465 

Of  Faults  in  Time,  40G 

Of  Faults  in  Force,  467 

Of  Faults  in  Pitch,  469 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

SECTION       LI.                 Of  Faults  in  the  Concrete  Movement,  469 

Of  Faults  in  the  Semitone,  470 

Of  Faults  in  the  Second,  471 

Of  Faults  in  the  Melody  of  Speech,  472 

First  Fault  in  Melody,  ib. 

Second  Fault  in  Melody,  473 

Third  Fault  in  Melody,  ib. 

Fourth  Fault  in  Melody,  475 

Fifth  Fault  in  Melody,  ib. 

Sixth  Fault  in  Melody,  476 

Seventh  Fault  in  Melody,  477 

Of  Faults  in  the  Cadence,  480 

Of  Faults  in  the  Intonation  at  Pauses,  482 

Of  Faults  in  the  Third,  ib. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Fifth,  483 

Of  Faults  in  the  Downward  Movement,  484 

Of  Faults  in  the  Discrete  Movement,  ib- 

Of  Faults  in  the  Wave,  ib. 

Of  Faults  in  Drift,  486 

Of  Faults  in  the  Grouping  of  Speech,  489 

Of  the  Fault  of  Mimicry,  ib. 

Of  Monotony  of  Voice,  492 

Of  Ranting  in  Speech,  493 

Of  Aflfectation  in  Speech,  ib. 

Of  Mouthing  in  Speech,  ib. 

Of  the  Faults  of  Stage-Personation,  497 

Conclusion,  510 

A  Brief  Analysis  of  Song  and  Recitative,  617 

Of  Song,  618 

Of  Recitative,  643 


PAOB. 

LIKI 

101, 

6 

from  the  head,  read 

syllable. 

114, 

H 

" 

"   head    " 

remain. 

173, 

13 

<i 

"    foot,     " 

•word. 

235, 

1 

<' 

"    foot.     " 

on  for  or. 

237. 

3 

'< 

"    head,   '♦ 

on  for  or. 

401, 

2 

«' 

"    head,   " 

function*. 

422, 

10 

" 

"    head,   « 

of  the  song 

PREFACE 


FOURTH   EDITION 


An  idea  has  for  some  time,  been  circulating  in  this  country, 
tending  to  persuade  every  body,  that  while  they  are  constitution- 
ally the  sovereigns  over  their  own  destiny  in  government,  they  are 
also  sovereign  over  the  rights  of  individuality,  and  the  restraints 
of  good-breeding,  morals,  and  law ;  with  the  further  claim  to 
tyrannize  over  independence  of  thought,  and  to  bind-down  the 
free-ranging  spirit  of  originality.  This  last  authority  assumes, 
that  originality,  with  its  Patents  of  discovery  and  invention, 
often  with  us,  so  cruelly  involved  in  litigation,  cannot  in  justice 
be  the  privilege  of  an  individual ;  that  whatever  apparent  novelty 
a  person  may  promulgate,  it  is  only  as  the  spokesman  of  a  commit- 
tee of  the  whole  human  mind,  which  has  previously  counseled, 
matured,  and  directed  all  he  has  reported.  That  what  was 
formerly  supposed  to  be  the  torch  of  discovery,  in  a  single  hand, 
is,  in  this  popular  era  of  equal  rights  and  Intcllect-in-Common, 
found  to  be  merely  a  breaking-out,  at  one  human  spot,  of  the  full- 
prepared,  and  anticipated  light  of  a  collective  effort  in  progres- 
sive instruction. 

This  may  indeed  be  true  of  gradual  additions,  to  the  common- 
place wants  of  life :  and  of  those  who  like  politicians,  have  now 
no  new  craft  to  discover  or  invent ;  of  the  lawyer,  whose  thinking 
by  the  law,  is  his  law  of  thinking ;  of  the  physician,  whose  rule 
of  progress,  is  just  to  keep  along  with  the  progress ;  of  the  sectary, 
2 


X  PREFACE. 

■whose  orthodoxy  means  the  common-doxy  of  himself  and  his  dis- 
ciple ;  and  of  the  popular  Great  Man  of  the  day,  whose  endless 
intimacies  so  identify  him  with  every  body,  that  his  concerns 
in  a  joint-stock  of  thought  and  reputation,  both  waste  his 
mind  with  importunate  obligations,  and  take  from  him  the  power 
of  thinking  for  himself.  It  is  likewise  true  of  governments, 
which,  with  occasional  commotions,  always  rise  or  fall  by  gradual 
change:  and  of  some  of  the  arts,  particularly  Architecture; 
for  though  by  its  own  principles,  capable  of  any  number  of  dis- 
tinct and  self-unitized  orders,  yet  being  without  suggestive  and 
original  models  in  nature,  its  improvement  and  decline  have  been 
no  more  than  successive  variations  of  preceding  examples.  It 
is  not  true,  however,  of  those  who  outstrip  the  world  by  unre- 
strained observation  and  reflection  ;  unawed  by  the  frowns  of 
conventional  authority  :  and  far  away  as  possible,  from  the 
mischievous  delusions  of  the  opinions  of  men.  For  the  'idols 
of  the  market,'  'of  the  theatre,'  and  of  the  common  mental- 
exchange,  are  idols,  deaf  as  well  as  dumb ;  and  altogether  so 
impotent,  that  when  implored  for  gifts  of  original  genius,  are 
always  implored  in  vain.  Neither  is  it  true  of  that  elegant 
Art  of  the  Landscape,  which  with  its  '  directing  wand'  trans- 
forms to  a  Garden,  the  wilderness  of  Nature ;  and  which, 
presented  at  the  '  Improver's  word,'  an  assemblage  of  the  grand, 
the  beautiful,  the  varied,  and  the  picturesque  ;  giving  to  England 
the  claim  of  adding  to  the  'Nine,'  another  Muse,  already  in  her 
few  counted  years,  full-endowed  with  dignity  of  character 
softened  into  grace ;  yet  never  hoped-for  nor  expected,  because 
never  thought-of  before. 

This  law  of  co-equality, —  that  no  one  shall,  without  penalty 
for  the  oflfence,  have  a  thought  not  common  to  every  body  else, — 
is  one  of  the  usual  resolves  of  a  popular  'mass  meeting;'  and 
seems  to  be  a  confusion  of  ideas,  in  attempting  to  express 
the  simple  truism,  that  no  invention  or  discovery  is  received 
by  the  world,  until  every  body  can  make  use  of  it,  or  is  of 
the  same  opinion  as  the  author.  For  it  is  with  the  original 
truth  of  Science,  as  with  the  prudential  offer  of  practical  ad- 
vice; nobody  adopts   it,  except    it    confirms  his  previous   idea. 


PREFACE.  XI 

But  the  mass-meeting,  not  to  lessen  its  little  dignity,  by  drop- 
ping even  a  letter,  is  still  a  mass,  and  will  have  its  own  stubborn 
and  head-strong  way.     The  work    therefore,  of  which  I   here 
offer  the  fourth    edition,  much    enlarged,  must,  I  suppose,  be 
tried,  and  I  fear  condemned  by  its  rules.     For  if  the  voice   of 
the  times,  joining  immediately  in  the  advancement  of  any  point 
of  knowledge,  is  the  test  of  its  truth,  merely  because  the  mind  of 
the  times,  has  up  to  the  last  step,  produced  the  advancement, 
the  work  before  us,  can  offer  scarcely  a  claim  to  attention.    And 
I  have  no  present  pride,  nor  future  hope,  to  prevent  the  candid 
declaration,  that  from  its  first  appearance,  to  this  time,  a  period 
of  twenty-seven  years,  its  only  debt  of  gratitude,  is  to  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  teachers,  to  a  few  inquiring  and 
musical  mechanics,  and  a  few  unmusical  members  of  the  society 
of  Friends.     For,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  ninty-nine  hundredths 
of  all  Physiologists,  whose  purpose  it  is  to  describe   the  voice ; 
of  Masters  of  colleges  and  schools,  who  teach  the  art  of  reading ; 
of  Elocutionists,  whose  materials  of  speech  are  furnished  here  ; 
of  Naturalists,  who  through  the  wide  range  of  zoology,  might 
take  an  interest  in  eomjjarative  Intonation  ;  of  the  Votary  of  the 
fine  arts,  who  might  here  see  the  seventh  muse,  now  crowned  by 
Science  ;  and  of  the  Philosopher  of  the  mind,  who  might  perceive 
some  curious  relations  of  language  to  sentiment  and  thought.     Of 
these  I  repeat  it,  there  are  ninety-nine  hundredths,  who  so  far 
from  having  had  a  preparatory  hand  in  this  work,  do  not  merely 
pass  it  by,  but  after  it  has  now  been  before  them,  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  do  not  even  yet,  as  to  its  nature  and  pur- 
poses, know  what  it  means. 

According  to  this  popular  idea  of  co-equality  and  co-labora- 
tion,  our  book  stands  in  a  dilemma.  For  on  the  one  side,  those 
who  are  eminently  qualified  to  discover  its  meaning,  have  found 
none.  Co-laboration  therefore  could  have  had  no  hand  in  it; 
and  the  world,  not  being  prepared  for  it  at  this  time,  never  can 
be.  On  the  other  side,  if  the  principle  of  co-laboration  is  not 
always  true,  this  work  may  be  founded  in  nature,  and  may  be  a 
contribution  to  the  expressive,  and  the  beautiful  in  speech,  even 
though  the  learned  world  was  neither  prepared  for  its  reception, 


Xii  PREFACE. 

or  even  able  to  understand  it  when  it  came.  But  time  who  set- 
tles so  many  differences,  must  determine  whether  the  co-laborative 
rule  is  sometimes  false,  or  the 'Philosophy  of  the  Human  voice,' 
no  better  than  a  dream.  All  I  have  to  say  to  the  Votary  of 
analytic  science  and  taste,  is,  —  'Strike,  but'  read  me,  for  I 
cannot  help  thinking,  if  you  do  read,  though  you  cannot  take 
back  the  contemptuous  blow,  —  you  will  not  strike  again. 

It  has  been  more  than  once,  said  to  me  personally,  and  stated  in 
print,  that  the  '  Philosophy  of  the  Human  voice'  has  exhausted 
its  subject.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  with  regard  to  the  past  and 
future  in  Science,  to  which  we  should  always  look  with  thankful- 
ness and  hope,  that  it  has  ever  been  thought  so ;  for  if  I  per- 
ceive the  future  in  this  work,  it  has  but  just  begun  its  subject,  on 
a  new  and  lasting  foundation.  And  above  all,  should  it  be  regret- 
ted, if  the  calculation,  that  nothing  more  can  be  onade  out  of  it, 
should  be  even  the  least  reason  for  its  being  overlooked.  On 
the  contrary,  I  cannot  here  withhold  the  prediction,  that  when 
taken  up  as  a  subject  of  further  inquiry,  and  as  a  part  of  educa- 
tion, its  intelligent  Professors  will  extend  and  exalt  it  to  a 
degree,  that  I  cannot  now  anticipate  or  comprehend.  I  would 
willingly  have  assisted  earlier  laborers  at  our  work,  by  vocal 
proof  and  illustration :  but  my  time  is  fast  going  by,  and  when 
they  do  go  into  the  field,  I  cannot  be  there. 

The  history  of  the  progress  of  one  of  the  fine  arts,  in  En- 
gland, has  often  in  my  mind,  been  associated  with  our  present 
subject ;  and  as  I  followed  the  progress  of  that  art  in  my  read- 
ing,—  from  the  time  it  first  began  to  gather-in  its  facts,  and 
frame  its  principles, —  up  to  its  present  methodic,  and  aesthetic 
condition,  I  feign  at  least,  a  plea  for  noticing  it  here. 

I  remember,  my  earliest  curiosity  for  Gothic  arthitecture  was 
excited  by  Scott's  poems :  and  on  going  to  Scotland,  in  the 
year  eighteen  hundred  and  nine,  the  first  of  its  structures  I  saw, 
was  the  Cathedral  of  Glasgow.  It  was  then  all  eye-sight  and 
novelty  with  me,  but  not  taste ;  yet  perhaps,  as  a  first  uncon- 
scious step  towards  it,  I  departed  with  an  unsatisfied  desire,  for 
that  knowledge  of  the  nomenclature  of  its  structure  and  detail, 
which  would  have  given  materials  to  my  memory,  with  some 


PREFACE.  XUl 

order  and  co-relation  to  my  thoughts.  I  did  ask  the  Old  Dame 
many  questions,  but  I  found  I  had  learned  more  from  the  Minstrel 
and  Marmion,  than  she  ever  knew.  Medical  studies  and  other 
interests  occupied  me  a  year  in  Edinburgh.  During  a  subse- 
quent residence  in  London,  I  procured  the  small  volume  of 
essays  by  Wharton  and  others ;  and  Milner's  treatise,  together 
with  his  history  of  Winchester.  By  means  of  their  chronicle  of 
styles  and  changes  in  the  art ;  by  their  explanation  of  terms,  or 
the  incidental  use  of  them;  and  by  the  light  of  taste,  just  begin- 
ning to  show-out  in  the  pages  of  Milner,  I  was  enabled,  after 
visiting  churches,  to  compile  for  my  own  private  instruction, 
and  as  my  own  remembrancer,  something  like  an  elementary 
compend :  including  a  description  of  the  structure  of  the  cathe- 
dral ;  the  character  and  successions  of  its  various  styles ;  an 
explanation  of  the  terms  of  the  art,  as  far  as  they  had  then 
been  assigned ;  and  an  account  of  the  division,  distribution  and 
purposes  of  the  Monastery.  This  little  manuscript  is  dated  in 
eighteen  hundred  and  eleven :  and  is  among  the  earliest,  as  far 
as  I  can  learn,  in  that  manner  of  treating  the  subject.  There 
was  then  neither  name  nor  fame  in  the  art :  and  the  interest  in  it, 
was  confined  to  as  few  perhaps,  as  those  now  interested  in  the 
analysis  of  speech. 

On  revisiting  England  in  eighteen  hundred  and  forty-five, 
Gothic  Architecture  had  become  so  popular,  that  the  amateur 
and  compiler  had  begun  to  rival  the  professional  artist.  Every 
gentleman  was  required  to  have  a  smattering  at  least  of  its 
terms ;  and  many  a  rail-car  passenger  was  ready  to  tell  you  of 
Norman,  Early  English,  Decorated,  and  Perpendicular  styles.  My 
sympathy  with  an  enthusiast,  at  the  Winchester  Station,  made 
quite  friends  of  us,  as  we  together  traced  the  Cathedral  forms 
and  chronology ;  from  Walkelyn's  Norman  '  arches  broad  and 
round,'  to  the  grand  and  graceful  unity  of  Wykeham ;  which 
seems  yet  to  say  to  the  art,  —  thus  far  shouldst  thou  go  and  no 
farther,  and  here  should  thy  pure  and  finished   style  be  staid. 

Perhaps  an  Englishman  might  say, — this  sudden  intimacy, 
*  without  knowing  who  people  are,'  even  though  the  intimacy 
sprung  from  congenial  knowledge,  was  very  improper  indeed. 


XIV  PREFACE, 

But  we  soon  parted,  and  forever :  yet  I  believe,  neither  has  since 
suffered  any  inconvenience  from  our  sociability,  while  I  very 
agreeably  received  much  satisfactory  information. 

llcgarding  then  the  restoration  of  Gothic  Architecture,  may 
we  ask,  —  whether  the  time  will  ever  come,  when  the  art  of 
analytic  speech,  now  the  humble  topic  of  a  small  fraternity, 
may  so  far  obtain  a  hearing  from  the  world,  that  some  influen- 
tial patrons  will,  as  happened  with  that  once  o'er-shadowed 
art,  draw  ours  too  from  obscurity?  —  Will  the  time  ever  come, 
when  our  School  of  Nature  and  Inquiry  may  say,  and  it  shall 
be  understood,  —  that  Mrs.  Siddons  derived  her  great  dignity 
in  Tragedy,  from  a  well  directed  use  of  the  Diatonic  Melody, 
more  than  from  any  other  means  of  intonation  ;  and  that  Barry, 
in  characters  of  tenderness,  owed  his  superiority  over  Garrick, 
to  his  delicate  execution,  and  appropriate  use  of  the  Semitonic 
Wave?  —  Will  it  come,  when  on  the  authority  of  our  principles, 
it  will  be  believed,  if  I  say,  that  the  later  Booth,  although  re- 
jected or  undervalued,  perhaps  through  some  business  calcula- 
tion, by  London  Managers,  yet  apart  from  the  ranting  scenes 
of  the  poet,  had  in  his  better  days,  with  least  of  the  vocal 
vices  of  the  stage,  and  hardly  an  affectation,  one  of  the  most  ele- 
gant and  appropriate  intonations  I  have  ever  heard  ?  And  finally, 
will  not  the  time  come,  when  in  some  future  system  of  speech, 
raised  upon  the  foundation  here  laid  in  Observation,  principles 
may  take  the  place  of  authority:  and  the  name  of  Master  being 
no  more  bandied,  and  kept  up,  by  contentious  opinion,  may  be 
superseded  by  acknowledged  precept,  and  then  be  forgotten  ? 


Philadelphia,  January  1,  1855. 


PREFACE 


THIPJD   EDITION 


The  '  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Voice'  was  first  published, 
nearly  eighteen  years  ago  :  and  as  the  lapse  of  time  has  afforded 
ample  opportunity  for  determining,  how  far  its  descriptions  ac- 
cord with  the  phenomena  of  Nature  ;  it  may  not  be  uninteresting 
to  the  reflective  student  of  elocution,  to  have  a  short  account  of 
its  reception,  and  of  its  progress  within  this  period. 

Two  editions  have  been  published  ;  one  of  five  hundred  copies, 
in  January,  eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-seven  ;  the  other,  of 
twelve  hundred  and  fifty  copies,  in  June,  eighteen  hundred  and 
thirty-three.  And  although  the  work  has  been  out  of  print  for 
six  years,  the  present  edition  is  not  perhaps  essential  to  its  pre- 
servation :  there  being  already  abroad,  print  enough  to  furnish  a 
revival-copy,  when  the  humor  of  those  who  hold  the  great  seals 
of  patronage,  may  choose  to  give  it  a  place  in  their  encyclopedia 
of  knowledge,  and  their  schools  of  practical  instruction.  It  is 
rather  at  the  call,  and  for  the  sake  of  those  few  friendly  Samar- 
itans, who  are  disposed  to  take  charge  of  it,  while  the  Priest  and 
Levite  of  learning  pass  along  on  the  other  side,  that  I  have  with 
some  inconvenience,  at  this  time,  undertaken  to  republish  it. 

The  amount  of  good-will  thus  far  extended  to  the  work,  may 
scarcely  deserve  the  name  of  patronage :  but  it  is  rather  more 
than  was  expected,  and  will  perhaps  be  sufficient  to  keep  it  from 


XVI  PREFACE. 

oblivion.  Upwards  of  twenty  individuals  with  various  qualifica- 
tions, have  been  occupied  in  teaching  its  principles.  The  greater 
part  of  these  have  lived  in  the  Northern  section  of  the  United 
States.  South  and  West  of  the  Susquehanna,  it  is  little  known. 
All  the  individuals  alluded  to,  have  respectively  taught  the  work, 
with  a  full,  or  a  limited  understanding  of  it,  and  a  varied  ability 
to  apply  it  in  practice.  Some  have  been  resident  and  some 
traveling  teachers :  the  latter  giving  lectures,  or  temporary 
school-instruction,  in  towns  and  villages.  It  may  well  be  ima- 
gined, that  teaching  a  system  uninviting  at  least,  if  not  repul- 
sive, from  its  novelty,  would  be  but  an  unprofitable  labor :  and 
such  appears  to  have  been  the  case  with  those  who  have  thus  far 
been  occupied  in  its  promulgation. 

As  this  work  professes  to  set  forth,  the  universal  principles  of 
speech,  the  subject  at  least,  is  not  beneath  the  notice  of  the 
philologist  of  any  age  or  nation.  But  as  regards  its  foreign  rela- 
tionships, the  '  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Voice'  has  been  obliged 
to  come  under  that  old  interrogative  condemnation  of — 'who 
reads  an  American  book  ?' 

To  the  scientific  in  two  or  three  parts  of  Europe,  it  is  known, 
by  an  occasional  whisper,  that  such  a  book  exists.  Two  indivi- 
duals. Dr.  Barber,  and  the  Reverend  Samuel  Wood,  have  been 
the  first  to  speak  aloud  of  it  in  England :  but  with  what  success, 
I  am  not  informed.  It  lies  all-dusty  on  the  shelves  of  many  of 
the  Public  libraries  of  Europe ;  and  is  in  the  possession  of  some 
of  those  who  give  fashion  to  the  science  of  the  times.  But  it  has 
never  yet  received  a  strictly  investigating  notice  :  no  examina- 
tion by  a  qualified  and  authoritative  ear,  which  might  decide 
whether  what  is  ofi'ered  as  the  truth  of  Nature,  is  that  very 
truth.  And,  as  in  preparing  the  work  for  others,  the  author 
was,  by  circumstances,  the  solitary  pupil  of  his  own  instruction  ; 
so  with  hope-deferred,  to  correct  its  faults  by  the  aid  of  compe- 
tent counsel,  he  has  been  obliged,  in  the  variations  and  enlarge- 
ment of  each  successive  edition,  to  assume  the  ofiice  of  an  insuffi- 
cient and  perhaps  partial  critic  over  himself. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  the  pupils  and  friends  of  this 
system,  have  been  of  that  class,  which  the  Rank  and  Fashion  of 


PREFACE.  XVll 

Science  calls  the  humble  and  Unknown  ;  Persons  of  no  account ; 
though  long  noted  for  sometimes  doing  new  and  most  excellent 
things,  and  for  very  frequently,  first  helping  them  along. 

Of  the  infinitude  of  demagogues  in  our  country,  from  the  can- 
didate for  Presidency,  down  to  him  who  works  the  plot  of  Nom- 
ination ;  and  who  all,  in  one  debasing  brotherhood,  but  with  a 
varied  personality,  are  at  the  same  time,  corrupting  their  voices, 
their  intellect,  their  moral  principles,  and  their  republican  go- 
vernment : — of  all  these,  I  have  not  heard  of  one,  who  has  had 
time  or  repose  enough,  to  inquire  even  whether  this  Avork  might 
not,  if  so  ill-used  alas  !  imbue  his  speeches  wdth  a  more  impres- 
sive sophistry,  and  graceful  vocal-cunning,  to  allure,  to  blind, 
and  to  mislead  the  people. 

Of  the  many  Actors  whom  I  have  known  and  heard  of,  none 
seem  to  have  the  least  idea  of  such  a  thing  as  a  philosophy  of 
the  voice ;  or  that  the  department  of  speech  which  this  book  \ 
particularly  regards,  requires  the  improving  aid  of  science ;  or 
indeed,  that  success  in  their  art  can  be  efiected  by  anything  else 
than  some  mysterious  power  of  genius.  One  individual,  but  not 
till  he  had  left  the  Stage,  has  formed  an  association  in  Boston, 
for  teaching  the  principles  of  this  philosophy. 

Here  and  there,  a  young  Lawyer,  with  that  generality  of  tem- 
perament, and  inkling  of  taste,  which  in  this  country  at  least,  is 
rather  a  drawback  to  advancement  in  the  profession,  has  looked 
into  this  subject,  tried  a  few  lessons,  and  then  abandoned  his 
purpose. 

The  clergy  have  more  generally  regarded  the  system  with  a 
favorable  ear  :  have  studied  and  patronized  it. 

I  have  known  one  physician  only,  who  comprehended  the  de- 
sign, and  studied  the  details  of  this  work ;  but  he  is  deceased. 
Why  it  has  found  no  favor  with  the  Medical  Faculty,  at  least  as 
a  subject  of  physiology,  is  perhaps  to  be  solved  by  the  facts — 
that  it  is  strictly  observative  ;  that  it  rejects  all  notions,  and  quar- 
relsome theories  ; — has  not  yet  come  into  popular  use  ; — and  is 
the  contribution,  such  as  it  is,  of  a  physician. 

Musicians  and  singers,  together  with  a  certain  class  of  ama- 
teurs and  critics,  who  either  to   confer  or  receive  patronage, 


XVni  PREFACE. 

hover  about  them,  have  given  no  attention  to  this  subject.  Of  a 
large  number  in  each  of  these  classes,  I  have  found  none  able  to 
appreciate  our  history ;  or  to  understand  how  speech  and  music 
might  be  but  different  branches  of  the  same  art.  To  this  I  may 
add  the  remarkable  circumstance,  that  while  musicians  and  sing- 
ers, possessing  by  the  long  habit  of  practice,  if  not  by  natural 
ear,  the  most  precise  discrimination  of  tunable  sounds,  are  unable 
to  recognize  the  peculiar  music  of  speech,  and  even  to  under- 
stand the  mere  meaning  of  this  work  ;  —  there  is  a  class,  —  the 
Society  of  Friends,  who,  by  the  strictest  discipline,  shun  all  the 
graces  of  Art,  who  never  cultivate  the  ear  either  by  instrument 
or  voice,  but  fantastically  corrupt  it  in  their  public  discourse ; 
yet  these,  when  addressed  by  the  system,  have  formed  a  large 
proportion  of  its  pupils,  and  have  comprehended  its  design, 
though  they  may  not  have  always  been  able,  vocally  to  execute 
its  rules. 

A  few  teachers  of  Psalmody  appear  to  have  read  the  work  ; 
and  as  far  as  they  have  found  its  discriminations  and  terms 
applicable  to  their  purpose,  have  adopted  them  in  their  Man- 
uals of  instruction. 

On  the  whole,  very  few  of  those  who  hold  the  scientific  influ- 
ence, whatever  that  may  be,  of  this  country,  have  regarded  it, 
either  with  curiosity  or  favor.  But  what  makes  their  case  re- 
markable is,  that  in  their  own  want  of  understanding,  they 
always  imagine  the  deficiency  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  Author. 
One  says,  it  is  a  sealed  book ;  another,  that  it  might  as  well  have 
been  written  in  Hebrew.  An  eminent  leader  of  opinion,  on  this 
side  of  the  water,  says,  it  is  not  worth  reviewing  :  while  on  the 
other  side,  one  of  the  very  highest  rank,  in  British  periodical 
criticism,  declares,  in  the  frank  confession  of  an  ineffable  superi- 
ority, that  'it  quite  surpasses  his  comprehension.'  One,  not 
contented  with  his  own  single  incompetence,  takes  me  into  his 
company,  by  saying,  that  I  do  not  understand  it  myself:  while 
to  a  high-placed  medical  professor,  the  work  appeared  to  be 
altogether  so  unintelligible,  that  he  recommended  one  of  his 
friends  to  read  it,  as  a  fine  example,  that  is  a  case,  of  the  incohe- 
rent language  of  insanity. 


PREFACE.  XIX 

These  remarks  have  a  place  here,  not  from  their  importance 
either  to  the  author  or  his  subject :  but  as  minor  chronicles,  col-, 
lateral  to  the  early  history  of  the  Philosophy  of  Speech.  And 
I  am  quite  willing  to  believe,  that  whether  they  came  from  igno- 
rance or  from  spleen,  they  were  the  offspring  of  a  thoughtless 
humor,  by  this  time,  changed  to  something  else  equally  foolish 
or  bad.  These  however  may  have  been  words  of  a  moment,  and 
then  forgotten.  Two,  and  only  two,  as  far  as  known,  have  em- 
ployed time,  reflection,  argument,  public  lecturing  and  printing, 
in  dispute  of  the  claims  of  this  work. 

Under  the  article  Philology,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Americana, 
the  President  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  after  stat- 
ing, as  well  as  he  could  comprehend  it,  the  nature  and  the  de- 
sign of  the  *  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Voice,'  gives,  what  he 
thinks,  learned  and  suflicient  reasons  for  determining,  not  only 
that  this  work  has  not,  according  to  its  purpose,  developed  and"^ 
measured  the  expressive  movements  of  speech: — but  that  it 
never  can  he  done.  Not  to  contend  here  Avith  a  gentleman,  who 
at  the  head  of  all  the  j^hilosophers,  denies  —  what  I  perhaps 
vainly,  imagine  to  have  been  accomplished ;  I  must  hand  him 
over  to  the  unknown  science  and  industry  of  future  ages,  to  ar- 
gue the  case  of  its  future  impossibility ;  only  remarking  here, 
that  as  it  has  been  done  already,  in  the  work,  now  in  the  dis- 
tinguished President's  hands,  there  can  be  nothing  impossible 
or  miraculous  in  the  idea  of  its  being  done  again. 

The  other  formal  decision  against  the  means  and  end  of  this 
work,  comes,  as  I  am  told,  from  one  of  the  thousand  lecturers 
of  the  day,  at  Boston,  whose  name  I  cannot  now  call  to  mind. 
All  I  have  to  say  of  his  attempt  at  refutation,  though  I  have 
never  seen  the  article,  is,  —  that  in  addition  to  the  direct  demon- 
stration of  the  truth  of  the  analysis,  which  the  ear  has  given  to 
some  few  inquirers,  he  has  unexpectedly  furnished  us  with  that 
indirect  proof,  called  by  logicians,  the — argumentum  dueensin 
absurdum:  meaning  in  plain  English,  —  the  proposition  must 
be  true  when  we  cannot,  without  absurdity,  prove  it  to  be  false. 

I  have  a  few  words  to  add,  on  the  subject  of  adapting  the 
principles  of  this  work,  to  the  purposes  of  practical  instruction. 


XX  PREFACE. 

Seven  or  eight  grammars  or  text-books  of  elocution,  for  the  use 
of  schools,  have  already  been  formed  out  of  a  different  amount 
of  its  materials,  and  set  forth  with  various  degrees"  of  ability. 
Now,  as  the  object  is  to  render  a  grammar  popular,  it  has  been 
the  aim  of  the  compilers  to  simplify  the  system,  and  to  furnish 
a  cheap  book ;  thus  accommodating  it,  as  they  suppose,  to  the 
mental,  and  other  necessities  of  the  learner.  This  attempt, 
whether  by  its  very  nature,  or  the  manner  of  its  execution,  has 
perhaps  had  the  effect  to  retard  the  progress  of  our  new  system 
of  the  voice.  For  the  superficial  character  of  these  books,  and 
the  minf^ling  of  parts  of  the  old  method  with  parts  of  the  new, 
together  with  an  attempt  to  give  definition  and  order  to  a  few 
scattered  materials,  has  left  the  inquirer  unsatisfied,  if  it  has 
not  brought  his  mind  to  confusion.  One  of  the  difficulties  of 
introducing  new  subjects  of  education  is,  that  you  give  the 
scholar,  as  he  thinks,  too  much  to  do.  But  by  the  condition  of 
all  such  cases,  he  must  learn  the  whole,  or  he  learns  com- 
paratively nothing.  The  time  for  abstracting  or  condensing 
by  synopsis,  or  by  a  sketch,  is  when  a  general  understanding  of 
the  subject  prevails ;  when  hints  go  a  great  way,  and  expositors 
are  found  every  where.  I  composed  this  work  under  the  idea, 
that  it  might,  for  a  time,  be  consigned  to  oblivion :  But  that  if 
afterwards,  a  single  worm-eaten  copy  should  be  recovered,  with 
nature  only  for  its  illustration,  a  knowledge  of  its  analysis  and 
purpose  might  be  revived,  without  the  living  assistance  of  the 
author.  I  wrote  it  too,  with  all  the  brevity,  its  strangeness 
would  allow ;  and  as  well  as  I  can  judge,  with  sufficient  fulness, 
to  make  it  intelligible.  Within  these  limits  of  composition,  it  was 
my  design  so  to  describe  the  nature  and  uses  of  the  voice,  that 
they  might  be  audibly  illustrated  for  the  benefit  of  the  scholar  ; 
—  not  merely  to  furnish  materials  to  be  broken  up,  curtailed, 
jumbled  into  a  text-book,  and  printed  for  the  pecuniary  benefit 
of  a  master.  The  purpose  indeed,  seemed  to  need  an  apology  ; 
and  it  is  generally  offered,  under  the  consideration  of  the  re- 
duced cost  of  an  abridgment,  compared  with  that  of  a  larger 
work.  But  when  was  cheap  knowledge,  more  than  cheap  work, 
ever  worth  even  half  of  what  was  given  for  it  ?     And  the  truth 


PREFACE.  XXI 

is,  if  a  succession  of  cheap  and  insuflBcient  books  did  not  everlast- 
ingly invite  and  delude  the  public,  there  would  be  purchasers 
enough,  of  what  are  now  more  expensive  and  useful  works,  to 
reduce  them  to  a  reasonable  cost.  An  unfortunate  result  of  these 
small  grammars  taking  the  place  of  full  and  clear  description,  is 
that  each  compiler  has  a  special  interest  in  his  own  little  book,  to 
the  exclusion  of  others  of  the  same  kind.  And  this  produces,  as  I 
have  witnessed,  jealousies,  and  not  a  little  back-biting  criticism, 
among  these  several  competitors  for  popular  favor.  Thus,  one 
is  said  to  have  made  an  odd  assemblage  of  the  old  indefinite  sys- 
tem, with  the  new.  One  is  thought  to  have  given  too  little  mu- 
sical explanation ;  another  too  much.  This  one's  arrangement 
is  wrong ;  another's  is  no  better :  and  a  third  has  no  arrange- 
ment at  all.  One,  in  a  desire  to  be  popular,  forgets  to  be  de- 
scriptive. One  is  charged  with  slily  taking  his  materials,  with- 
out acknowledgment :  another,  with  boldly  palming  them  oflF  as 
his  own.  While  another,  supposing  himself  to  have  become 
original,  by  a  long  habit  of  copying,  receives  and  publishes  com- 
pliments to  himself,  on  his  philosophical  analysis,  and  on  his  new 
system  of  elocution. 

This  is  what  these  discordant  gentlemen,  who  profess  to  draw 
from  a  common  stock,  so  critically  say  of  each  other :  he  who 
makes  the  last  book,  being  most  obnoxious  to  the  rest,  by  com- 
plaining before  their  face,  of  the  want  of  a  right  kind  of  manual, 
which  he  invidiously  undertakes  to  supply. 

I  make  these  remarks,  with  a  disposition  to  advance  an  art, 
in  which  the  persons  here  referred  to,  have  joined  the  distracting 
and  questionable  interest  of  publishing,  with  the  occupation  of 
illustrative  teaching.  If  the  time  had  arrived,  for  the  friends  or 
opponents  of  the  system  to  become,  by  the  habit  of  acute  and 
comprehensive  investigation,  authoritative  andresponsible  critics, 
I  would  sit  down  with  them,  and  together  expunge  all  the  errors 
of  the  '  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Voice ;'  and  see,  with  satis- 
faction, all  its  omissions  supplied.  I  never  myself  looked  for, 
nor  expected,  nor  have  I  received  any  pecuniary  benefit  from  this 
work :  and  it  ought  to  be  regretted,  if  those  who  have  that 


XXn  PREFACE. 


sort  of  gain  in  view,  should,  by  tlieir  haste,  or  insufficiency,  or 
their  differences  among  one  another,  mar  the  purpose  and  pro- 
gress of  that  art,  in  "vrhich,  as  a  subject  of  knowledge  and  taste, 
all  of  U3  should  be  equally  interested. 


Philadelphia,  December  2,  1844. 


PREFACE 


SECOND   EDITION 


More  than  six  years  ago,  I  offered  the  manuscript  of  the  fol- 
lowing work,  to  the  then  principal  bookseller  of  this  city.  En- 
gagements which  promised  to  be  more  lucrative  obliged  him  to 
decline  the  publication.  The  result  has  shown,  that  with  his 
instrumentalities  of  trade  he  might  have  made  a  profitable  sale 
of  it,  especially  as,  with  my  motives  in  authorship,  I  would  have 
freely  given  the  whole  right  of  the  edition  to  him.  I  made  else- 
where, no  second  offer  of  the  work ;  for  as  it  had  been  rejected 
by  the  so-called  foremost  Publishing-Patron  of  American  writers, 
I  deprecated  the  influence  of  his  example  against  me.  Thus 
the  first  step  of  my  authorship  was  unfortunate  ;  and  as  in  these 
days  of  anxious  benevolence,  a  very  few  misfortunes  are  sure 
to  bring  down  contempt, —  to  save  further  ill  luck,  I  printed  it 
myself;  and  subsequently  found  an  individual  not  unwilling  to 
interest  himself  in  distributing  it. 

I  remember,  one  of  the  Patron's  objections,  in  the  prophecy 
of  Trade,  to  publishing  the  '  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Voice' 
was,  'its  not  being  suited  to  this  country/.'  It  is  true,  the  higher  j^' 
views  of  science  and  taste,  and  all  individual  independence  of 
observation  and  thought, —  in  a  country,  where,  before  all  others, 
nothing  is  adopted,  or  is  successful,  but  through  the  associated 


XXIV  PREFACE. 

agency  of  numbers, —  are  considered  as  rebellion  against  the 
Kingly-spirit  of  Popularity,  and  the  Majorative-Despotism  of 
its  opinion :  Yet  upon  this  very  conviction  I  oflfercd  the  work  to 
the  public ;  hoping  by  the  diffusion  of  its  principles,  to  bring  it 
into  that  old  and  only  path  of  truth,  which  begins  with  a  few, 
and  ends  with  the  many ;  and  thus,  in  due  season,  to  suit  the 
country  to  it. 

With  here  and  there  an  exception,  the  scoffers  at  this  work 
have  been  those  eternal  enemies  to  all  disturbing  originality, 
the  Placemen  of  Learning.  Supposing  however  that,  through 
the  influence  of  knowledge  made  light  and  popular  and  cheap, 
the  Arts  are  not  now  so  far  downward  as  to  create  despair  of 
successful  efforts  by  a  new  one,  before  their  entire  decay 
and  future  revival ;  I  would  say  to  many  of  those  who  hold 
the  places  and  draw  the  profits  of  science,  that  if  they  will  but 
continue  to  sheathe  their  opposition  in  their  feigned  contempt, 
the  first  humble  advocates  of  this  work  may,  by  a  gradual  rise 
to  those  places  and  profits,  see  their  own  enlarged  designs  of 
instruction,  in  the  course  of  half  a  century,  completed. 

There  are  now  several  teachers  of  the  system  throughout  the 
United  States.  Dr.  Barber,  an  English  physician,  Avho  had  de- 
voted himself  to  the  study  of  elocution,  and  who  came  to  Phila- 
delphia about  the  period  of  its  publication,  was  the  first  to  adopt 
its  principles,  and  to  defend  them  against  the  double  influence 
of  doubt  and  sneer,  by  an  explanatory  and  illustrative  course  of 
lectures.  Yale  College,  at  New  Haven,  was  early  favorable  to 
the  system.  But  the  University  of  Cambridge,  by  appointing 
Dr.  Barber  to  its  department  of  Elocution,  was  the  first 
chartered  institution  of  science  that  gave  an  influential  and 
responsible  approbation  of  the  work. 

As  this  work  furnishes  general  principles  for  an  Art  hereto- 
fore directed  by  individual  instinct  or  caprice :  all  who  would 
teach  that  art  by  principles  founded  in  nature,  must  sooner 
or  later  adopt  it.  AVill  the  influential  instructors  of  Philadel- 
phia be  the  last  ?  If  this  city  were  not  the  place  of  my  birth 
and  residence,  I  would  take  upon  me  to  answer  — No. 

The  objections  first  made  to  '  the  Philosophy  of  the  Human 


PREFACE.  XXV 

Voice,'  were  against  its  iitilitj;  now  tlie  cry  among  the  learned 
is,  that  it  is  too  difficult.  Too  difficult !  Why,  all  new  things 
are  difficult ;  and  if  the  scholastic  pretender  knows  not  this,  let 
the  annals  of  the  trades  instruct  him.  Just  one  century  has 
elapsed  since  that  common  material  of  furniture  —  mahogany, 
was  first  known  in  England.  It  is  recorded  that  Dr.  Gibhons, 
an  eminent  physician  of  that  period,  had  a  brother,  a  ^Yest 
India  captain,  who  took  over  to  London  some  planks  of  this 
wood  as  ballast.  The  Doctor  was  then  building  a  house ;  and 
his  brother  thought  they  might  be  of  service  to  him.  But  the 
carpenters  finding  the  wood  too  hard  for  their  tools,  it  was  laid 
aside  for  a  time,  as  useless.  Soon  after,  a  candle-box  being 
wanted  in  his  family,  Dr.  Gibbons  requested  his  cabinet-maker 
to  use  some  of  this  plank  which  lay  in  his  garden.  The  cabinet- 
maker also  complained  that  it  was  too  hard.  The  Doctor  told 
him, — hQ  mwst  get  stronger  tools.  When  however  by  successful 
means,  the  box  was  made,  the  Doctor  ordered  a  bureau  of  the 
same  material ;  the  color  and  polish  of  which  were  so  remarkable, 
that  he  invited  all  his  friends  to  view  it.  Among  them  was  the 
Duchess  of  Buckingham,  who  being  struck  with  its  beauty,  ob- 
tained some  of  the  wood ;  and  a  like  piece  of  furniture  was  im- 
mediately made  for  Her  Grace.  Under  this  influence  the  fame 
of  mahogany  was  at  once  established  ;  its  manufacture  was  then 
found  to  be  in  nowise  difficult ;  and  its  employment  for  both  use 
and  ornament  has  since  become  universal. 

The  master-builders  of  science,  literature,  and  eloquence, 
declared  'the  Philosophy  of  the  HumanA^oice,'tobe  toohard  for 
their  studious  energies  ;  and  threw  it  aside  as  useless.  But  a  few 
humble  cabinet-makers  of  learning  having,  somehow  or  other, 
got  stronger  tools,  have  already  made  the  box ;  are  under  way 
with  the  bureau ;  and  are  only  waiting  for  the  authoritative 
influence  of  some  leader  of  oratorical  fashion, — to  produce  a 
general  belief  in  the  simple 'truism,  that  —  IF  WE  WISH  To  READ 

AVELL,  WE  MUST  FIRST  LEARN  HOW. 


Philadelphia,  June  2G,  1833. 

3 


INTRODUCTION, 


The  analysis  of  the  human  voice,  contained  in  the  following 
essay,  was  undertaken  a  few  years  ago,  exclusively  as  a  subject 
of  physiological  inquiry.  Upon  ascertaining  some  interesting 
facts  in  the  uses  of  speech,  I  was  induced  to  pursue  the  investi- 
gation ;  and  subsequently  to  attempt  a  methodical  description 
of  the  various  vocal  phenomena,  with  a  view  to  bring  the  sub- 
ject within  the  limits  of  science,  and  thereby  to  assist  the  pur- 
poses of  oratorical  instruction. 

By  every  scheme  of  the  cyclopedia,  the  subject  of  the  voice 
is  allotted  to  the  physiologist ;  yet  upon  its  most  important 
function,  —  speech  and  its  expression,  —  he  has  strangely  ne-, 
glected  his  part,  by  borrowing  the  small  substance  of  his  know- 
ledge from  the  fancies  of  rhetoricians,  and  the  inter-meddling; 
authority  of  grammarians.  It  is  time  at  last  for  physiology,  of 
right  and  seriously,  to  take  up  its  task. 

In  entering  on  this  inquiry,  I  resolved  to  defer  an  express 
reference  to  the  productions  of  former  writers,  until  the  habit 
of  discrimination  should  be  so  far  confirmed,  as  to  obviate  the 
danger  of  adopting  unquestioned  errors,  which  the  strongest 
effort  of  independence  often  finds  it  so  difficult  to  avoid.  Even 
a  faint  recollection  of  school  instruction  was  not  without  its  for- 
bidding interference,  with  my  first  endeavor  to  discover,  by  the 
ear  alone,  the  hidden  processes  of  speech. 

After  obtainin2;  an  outline  of  the  Avork  of  nature  in  the  voice, 
sufficient  to  enable  me  to  avail  myself  of  the  useful  truth  of 
other  observers,  and  to  guard  against  their  mistakes,  I  con- 
sulted all  accessible  treatises  on  the  subject,  particularly  the 


XXyiii  INTRODUCTION. 

European  compilations  of  the  clay,  the  authors  of  which  have 
opportunities  for  learned  research  not  enjoyed  in  this  country. 
Finding,  on  a  fair  comparison,  that  the  following  description 
of  the  voice  represents  its  nature  more  extensively  and  definitely 
than  any  received  system,  I  am  induced' to  offer  it  to  the  pub- 
lic. Many  errors  may  be  found  in  it ;  but  if  the  general  history, 
and  the  analytic  development  be  not  a  copy  from  nature,  and 
do  not  prompt  others  to  carry  the  inquiry  further,  and  into 
practical  detail,  I  shall  forever  regret  the  time  "wasted  in  the 
publication. 

It  becomes  me  however,  to  remark,  that  as  this  work  has  not 
been  made-up  from  the  quoted,  or  controverted,  or  accommo- 
dated opinions  of  authors,  I  shall  totally  disregard  any  decision 
upon  its  merits,  that  is  not  the  result  of  a  scrutinizing  compari- 
son with  nature  herself. 

The  art  of  speaking-well,  has,  in  most  civilized  countries, 
been  a  cherished  mark  of  distinction  between  the  elevated  and 
the  humble  conditions  of  life :  and  has  been  immediately  con- 
nected with  some  of  the  greater  purposes  of  justice,  patriotism, 
,  instruction,  and  taste.  It  may  therefore  appear  extraordinary, 
that  the  world,  with  all  its  works  of  philosophy,  should  have 
I  been  satisfied  with  an  instinctive  exercise  of  the  art,  and  with 
occasional  examples  of  its  supposed  perfection,  without  an  en- 
deavor to  found  an  analytic  system  of  instruction,  productive 
I,  of  multiplied  instances  of  success.  Due  reflection  however, 
will  convince  us,  that  even  this  extended  purpose  of  the  art  of 
speaking,  has  been  one  cause  of  the  neglect.  It  has  been  a 
popular  art ;  and  works  for  popularity  are  too  often  the  com- 
mon-place product  of  a  common-place  ambition.  The  renowned 
of  the  bar,  the  senate,  the  pulpit,  and  the  stage,  applauded  into 
self-confidence,  by  the  undiscerniug  multitude  that  surrounds 
them,  cannot  acknowledge  the  necessity  of  improvement :  for 
the  rewards  that  await  the  art  of  gratif^-ing  the  general  ear,  arc 
in  no  less  a  degree  encouraging  to  the  faults  of  the  voice,  than 
the  approving  judgment  of  the  million  is  subversive  of  the  rigid 
discipline  of  the  mind. 

Physiologists  have  described  and  classed  the  organic  positions 


INTRODUCTION.  xxix 

that  produce  the  ali^habetic  elements.     This  has  been  done  by 
the  rule,  and  ^vith  the  success  of  philosophy.     On  other  points 
their  attempts  have  not  been  so  satisfactory.     In  investigating 
the  subject  of  Intonation,  that  is,  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  voice, 
or  what  is  called  its  Pitch,  they  have  not  designated  by  some 
known  or  invented  scale,  the  forms  and  degrees  of  such  move- 
ments ;  and  thus  furnished  the  required  and  definite  detail  in 
this  department  of  speech.     They  have  rather  given  their  atten- 
tion to  such  inquiries  as  these  :  —  whether  the  organs  of  the  voice  >- 
partake  of  the  nature  of  a  wind  or  stringed  instrument;  —  how 
the  falsetto  is  made;  —  and  whether  acuteness  and  gravity  are, 
formed  by  variations  -in  the  aperture  of  the  glottis,  or  in  the,' 
tension  of  its  chords.     In  their  experiments,  they  have  removed, 
the  organs  from  men  and  other-  animals,  and  have  produced 
something  like  a  living  voice,  by  experimentally  blowing  through 
them.     They  have  carefully  inspected  the  cartilages  and  muscles  . 
of  the  larynx,  to  discover  thereby  the  immediate  cause  of  into- 
nation, while  they  altogether  overlooked  the  audible  forms  and 
degrees  of  that  intonation.     In  short,  they  have  tried  to  see    ^ 
sound,  and  to  touch  it  with  the  dissecting-knife ;    and  all  this^ 
without  reaching  any  positive  conclusion,  or  describing  more  of 
the  audible  effect  of  the  anatomical  structure,  than  was  known 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

/  The  Greek  and  Roman  rhetoricians,  and  writers  on  music, 
reborded  their  knowledge  of  the  functions  of  the  voice.  They 
distinguished  its  different  Qualities,  by  such  terms  as  —  hard, 
smooth,  sharp,  clear,  hoarse,  full,  slender,  flowing,  flexible, 
shrill,  and  austere.  They  knew  the  Time  of  the  voice,  and  had 
a  view  to  its  quantities  in  pronunciation.  They  gave  to  Force  or 
Stress,  under  its  form  of  accent  and  emphasis,  appropriate 
places  in  speech.  They  perceived  the  existence  of  Pitch,  or 
variation  of  high  and  low ;  and  were  the  first  to  make  an  exact 
and  beautiful  analysis  on  this  subject.  They  discovered  two 
forms  of  ascent  and  descent  in  Pitch ;  one  by  a  continuous 
rising  or  a  falling  Slide ;  the  other  by  a  discontinuous  move- 
ment, or  a  skip  in  ascent  or  descent.  They  also  ascertained 
that  the  former  is  employed  in   Speech ;  the  latter  on  musical 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

instruments.  Though,  from  carrying  the  inquii-y  no  further, 
they  supposed,  but  erroneously,  as  we  shall  learn  hereafter, 
that  the  one  was  solchj  appropriated  to  speech  ;  the  other  sohhj 
to  instruments. 

The  ancients  however  show  no  acquaintance  with  the  sub-divi- 
sions, definite  degrees,  and  particular  applications  of  those  two 
general  forms  of  pitch,  for  the  discriminative  purposes  of  oratori- 
cal use:  and  if  we  may  judge,  from  an  attempt  by  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus  to  point  out  the  difference  between  singing  and 
speech,  and  from  some  other  descriptions,  totally  irreconcilable 
with  the  proprieties  of  modern  intonation,  we  must  believe  that 
on  this  point,  they  made  but  a  limited  analysis ;  that  the  uses 
of  pitch,  or  of  the  tones  of  the  voice,  as  they  are  called,  were 
conducted  altogether  by  imitation  ;  and  that  the  moans  of  in- 
struction were  not  reduced  to  any  precise  or  available  direc- 
tions of  art. 

No  one  can  read  that  discourse  on  the  management  of  the 
voice,  in  Quinctilian's  elaborate  chapter  on  Action,  without  allow- 
ing to  the  ancients  a  power  of  perceiving  many  of  the  beauties 
and  blemishes  of  speech.  Yet  among  the  numerous  indications 
of  their  practical  familiarity  with  the  art  of  public  speaking,  we 
find  no  clear  description  of  its  constituents,  nor  any  definite  in- 
struction. The  abundant  detail  throughout  his  work,  more  than 
once  suggests  an  apology  for  its  minuteness ;  and  therefore  pre- 
cludes the  supposition  that  he  designedly  overlooked  any  well 
known  means,  by  which  the  various  uses  of  the  voice  might  be 
represented  with  available  precision. 

\^,It  is  believed,  the  ancient  rhetoricians  designated  the  pitch  of 
vocal  sounds  by  the  term  Accent.  They  made  three  kinds  of 
accents,  the  acute,  the  grave,  and  the  circumflex;  signifying, 
severally,  the  rise,  fall,  and  turn  of  the  voice.)  The  existence, 
in  Greek  manuscripts,''of  certain  marks,  which  however  were 
not  applied  till  about  the  seventh  century,  afforded  the  only 
data,  for  modern  inquiry  into  the  nature  of  Greek  intonation  ; 
and  created  a  learned  dispute,  that  has  continued,  without  one 
satisfactory  result,  from  the  time  of  the  Younger  Yossius,  to 
the  recent  days  of  Foster  and  Gaily. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXxi 

If  Greek  scholars  had  employed  other  means  than  wasteful 
"n'rangling  -with  each  other,  for  ascertaining  the  purpose  of  ac- 
centual marks,  it  would  long  ago  have  been  determined,  whether 
thej  direct  to  any  practical  knowledge  of  Greek  utterance,  or 
are  merely  a  subject  for  useless  contention.  Had  the  tongue 
and  the  ear  been  once  consulted  on  this  point,  these  symbols, 
even  with  the  certainty  of  their  alleged  use,  would  have  been 
regarded  as  vague  and  meager  representations  of  the  rich  and 
measurable  variety  of  the  voice. 

The  disputants  found  that  degree  of  obscurity  in  the  ancient 
records  on  accent,  which  encourages  the  profitless  labors,  and 
alternate  triumphs  of  party ;  which  subjects  opinion  to  all  the 
chicanery  of  sectarian  argument,  and  shuts  out  the  conclusive 
inquiries  of  independent  observation.  In  the  full  spirit  of  the 
old  dialectic  art,  they  '  discoursed  about  truth  until  they  forgot 
to  discover  it:'  and  while  they  exhibit  a  distressing  waste  of 
time  and  thought  and  temper,  by  seeking  in  the  obscurity  of 
unfinished  records,  the  light  which  would  readily  have  arisen  on 
their  observation,  they  hold  out  to  the  future  historians  of  litera- 
ture, a  temptation  towards  the  sarcastic  inquiry,  —  whether  the 
writers  on  Greek  and  Roman  accent  were  endowed  with  the 
powers  of  hearing  and  pronunciation. 

Since  the  decline,  or  the  limitation  of  classic  authority,  mod- 
ernunquirers,  by  listening  to  the  sounds  of  their  own  language, 
have  at  last  undertaken  to  discover  other  elemental  functions 
of  the  voice,  than  those  represented  by  accentual  marks. 

The  works  of  Steele,  Sheridan,  and  Walker,  have  made  large 
contributions  to  the  long  neglected  and  still  craving  condition 
of  our  tongue. 

Mr.  Joshua  Steele  published,  at  London,  in  the  year  seven- 
teen hundred  and  seventy-five,  '  An  essay  towards  establishing 
the  melody  and  measure  of  speech,  to  be  expressed  and  per- 
petuated, by  peculiar  symbols.'  The  design  of  this  essay  was 
suggested  by  some  remarks  on  the  nature  of  speech,  by  Lord 
Monboddo,  in  his  '  Origin  and  progress  of  language' :  and  was 
executed,  in  part,  under  the  form  of  an  argumentative  corres- 
pondence between  this  Author  and  Mr.  Steele. 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION. 

Future  times  may  smile  at  some  of  the  effects  of  classical 
pursuits,  if  ever  told, —  a  free  inquirer  had  considerable  diflBcultj, 
in  convincing  a  scholar,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
that  the  English  language  has  those  attributes  of  accent  and 
quantity,  supposed  to  belong  exclusively  to  the  Latin  and  the 
Greek :  for  this  was  the  subject  of  controversy.  ^  Mr.  Steele 
has  therefore  given  a  notation  of  the  time  of  the  voice :  and 
shown  that  the  same  concrete  intonation,  applied  to  syllables  of 
the  Greek  language,  is  necessarily  heard  on  those  of  his  own.) 
But  his  inquiry  into  the  elementary  nature  of  that  intonation, 
was  unsuccessful.  For  if  we  except  his  indefinite  representations 
of  some  new  forms  of  the  circumflex  accent,  we  shall  find,  he 
made  no  advances  beyond  the  few  but  fundamental  truths  of  the 
ancients.  In  attempting  to  delineate  the  melody  of  speech,  he 
adopted  those  leading  fictions,  and  indefinite  ideas  of  the  Greek 
elocution,  —  that  the  vocal  slides  are  somehow  made  through  en- 
harmonic intervals ;  and  that  three  tones  and  a  half  is  the  mea- 
sure of  the  accentual  concrete  in  ordinary  discourse.  The  influ- 
ence of  these  delusions,  together  with  his  belief  in  some  fancied 
analogies  between  certain  parts  of  the  system  of  music,  and  the 
melody  of  speech,  rendered  his  account  of  intonation  meager, 
indefinite,  and  erroneous.  The  principal  design  of  his  work  is, 
to  set  forth  a  system  of  Rythmic  Notation,  by  which  the  sub- 
jects of  emphasis  and  pause  may  be  represented  to  a  pupil ; 
and  the  habit  of  attention  fixed  on  these  important  points  in 
the  art  of  reading. 

Mr.  Steele  shows  by  his  work,  that  he  possessed  nicety  of 
ear ;  a  knowledge  of  the  science  antl  practice  of  music ;  together 
with  an  originality  and  independence  of  mind,  created  by  ob- 
servation and  reflection :  powers  sufiicient,  when  not  restrained 
or  perverted,  to  have  developed  the  whole  philosophy  of  speech. 

Had  he  not  begun  and  continued  his  investigation  through 
the  distracting  means  of  controversy ;  had  not  his  attention 
been  drawn  into  the  desultory  course  of  argument ;  nor  his 
courtesy  towards  the  opinions  of  others  partially  betrayed  him 
to  their  authority ;  had  he  not  assumed  as  identical,  those  points 
of  music  and  of  speech  which  his  own  able,  and  closer  observa- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXxiii 

tion  ^vould  have  proved  to  be  different ;  and  above  all,  had  he 
not  looked  back  to  the  ancients  and  the  dark  confusion  of  their 
commentators,  but  in  self-superiority  to  this  obstructive  influ- 
ence, kept  his  fuU-sufiicient  and  undeviating  ear  on  nature,  she 
would  at  last  have  led  him  up  to  light. 

I  Mr.  Sheridan  lis  well  known  bj  his  accurate  and  systematic 
'^investigation  of  the  art  of  reading-  and  though  he  improved 
both  the  detail  and  method  of  his  subject,  in  the  departments 
of  pronunciation,  emphasis,  and  pause,  he  made  no  analysis  of 
intonation.  A  regretted  omission  !  The  more  so,  from  the  cer- 
tainty, that  if  this  topic  had  seriously  invited  his  attention,  his 
genius  and  industry  would  have  shed  much  light  of  explanation 
upon  it. 

(  IMr.  Walker, ,  who  has  written  usefully  and  well  on  rhetoric 
and  philology,  shows  in  more  than  one  part  of  his  works,  that  the 
varieties  of  intonation  were  studiously  examined  by  him :  in- 
deed, he  reiterates  his  claims  to  originality  on  this  subject.  Mr. 
Walker  may  have  been  the  first  to  apply  the  confused  and  con- 
jectural system  of  ancient  accent  to  a  modern  language  :,/but  he 
has  scarcely  gone  beyond  the  limited  analysis,  furnished  by  that 
ancient  system.  (The  Greek  writers  on  music  had  a  discrimina- 
tive knowledge  of  the  rise,  fall,  and  circumflex  turn  of  speech. 
Aristoxenus  the  philosopher,  a  pupil  of  Aristotle,  discovered, 
or  first  described,  that  peculiar  rise  and  fall  of  sound  by  a  con- 
tinuous progression,  which  distinguishes  the  vocal  slide,  from  the 
skipping  transition  on  musical  instruments. 

Mr.  Walker  does  triumphantly  claim  the  discovery  of  the  in- 
verted circumflex  accent,  or  the  downward-and-upward  continued 
movement.  Yet,  if  it  is  correctly  inferred  from  the  dates  of 
publication,  and  from  Mr.  Walker'si  rather  derisive  allusion 
to  Mr.  Steele's  essay,  that  the  latter  author  preceded  him,  he 
might  have  found,  in  Mr.  Steele's  gravo-acute  accent,  proof  of 
the  real  existence  of  his  newly  found  function  of  the  voice. 

Mr.  Walker  was  a  celebrated  elocutionist,  and  may  have 
known  well  how  to  manage  his  intonation  ;  but  in  his  attempt 
to  delineate  its  forms  and  degrees,  he  is  even  less  definite  than 
Mr.  Steele.     His  insinuation  that  music  and  speech,  though  but 


xxxiv  INTRODUCTION. 

varied  uses  of  tuneable  constituents  common  to  each,  should  not 
be  illustrated  by  some  analogous  notation ;  and  his  own  errone- 
ous diagrams  of  the  progress  of  pitch,  are  instances  of  a  want 
of  reflection  and  of  obtuseness  of  ear,  quite  reprehensible  in 
any  one,  who,  without  compulsion,  should  undertake  to  investi- 
gate the  relationships  of  sound. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  point  out  the  nature  and  the 
sources,  of  what  has  been  heretofore  known  of  the  functions  of 
speech.  In  a  general  view  of  its  amount,  it  appears  :-^that  the 
number,  the  kinds,  and  the  organic  causes  of  the  Alphabetic 
Elements  have  long  since  been  recorded,  with  great  accuracy 
and  detail.  —  That  Quantity,  or  the  Time  of  syllabic  utterance, 
together  with  the  subject  of  Pause,  had  been  distinguished  only 
by  a  few  indefinite  terms,  until  j\Ir.  Steele,  with  much  discrimi- 
native perception,  applied  to  speech  some  of  the  principles  and 
symbols  of  musical  notation.  —  That  Accent  or  the  means  of 
distinguishing  a  syllable  by  stress  or  intensity  of  voice,  has  been 
definitely  described  in  English  orthoepy,  both  as  to  its  places 
and  degrees.  —  That  this  syllabic  stress,  Hhough  attentively  re- 
garded, in  the  grammatical  institute  of  the  Greeks,  is  yet  in 
their  records,  so  confounded  with  a  doctrine  of  the  sliding  rise, 
fall,  and  circumflex  turn  of  the  voice,  that  we  are  left  altogether 
in  doubt,  as  to  their  systematic  and  separate  use  of  these  differ- 
ent functions.  —  That  Emphasis,  Avhen  restricted  to  the  purpose 
of  making  one  or  more  words  conspicuous,  by  intensity  of  voice, 
has  long  been  a  subject  of  rhetorical  attention ;  Mr.  Walker 
however,  being  the  first  among  modern  philologists,  •  who  at- 
tempted, under  the  terms  upward  and  downward  slide,  to  con- 
nect any  formal  idea  of  Intonation  with  it. And  finally, 

that  the  analysis  of  Intonation  has  not  been  extended  much 
beyond  the  recorded  knowledge  of  the  ancients.  Greek  and 
Roman  writers  tell  us  of  the  acute,  grave,  and  circumflex  move- 
ments ;  and  these,^  with  the  newly  describedv  inverted-circumflex, 
have,  at  a  recent  date,  by  Mr.  Steele  and  Mr.  Walker,  first 
been  regarded,  in  the  art  of  speaking  the  English  language. 

These  four  general  heads  of  intonation  are  truly  drawn  from 
nature :  yet,  with  the  present  indefinite  meaning  of  their  terms, 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXV 

they  are  useless  for  practical  instruction,  and  are  no  less  imper- 
fectly expressive  of  the  measurable  modifications  of  speech, 
than  the  four  cardinal  terms  of  the  compass  are  descriptive  of 
all  the  points,  distances,  and  contents  of  space. 

The  discovery  of  the  above  mentioned  distinctions  in  intona- 
tion, -which  must  indeed  form  the  outline  of  all  nicer  discrimina- 
tion, was  the  result  of  philosophical  inquiry.  A  much  more 
abundant,  but  not  more  precise  nomenclature  has  been  derived 
from  criticism.  The  following  phrases  are  extracted  from  a  de- 
scription of  Mr.  Garrick's  manner  of  reading  the  Church-ser- 
vice, and  have  an  especial  reference  to  the  Intonation  of  his 
voice.  — '  Even  tenor  of  smooth  regular  delivery' — '  Fervent 
tone' — '  Sincerity  of  devotional  expi^ession' — 'Repentant  tone' 
—  'Reverential  tone' — 'Evenness  of  voice' — 'Tone  of  solemn 
dignity' — '  Of  supplication' — '  Of  sorrow  and    contrition.' 

Those  who  know  what  constitutes  accuracy  of  language,  must 
confess  that  these,  and  similar  attempts  to  name  the  signs  of  ex- 
pression, have  no  more  claim  to  the  title  of  clear  elementary 
description,  than  belongs  to  the  rambling  signification  of  vulgar 
nomenclature.  "We  seem  not  to  be  aware,  that  no  describable 
perceptions  are  associated  with  such  common  phrases  of  criticism, 
until  required  to  illustrate  them  by  some  definite  discrimination 
of  vocal  sounds.  '  Grandeur  of  feeling,'  says  a  writer,  'should 
be  expressed  with  pomp  and  magnificence  of  tone;'  and  we  may 
therefore  presume,  from  his  mode  of  elucidation,  that  this  ex- 
positor, if  asked, — how  pomp  and  magnificence  of  feeling  should 
be  expressed,  would  naturally  have  answered, — by  grandeur  of 
tone.  Such  rules  for  the  expression  of  speech,  though  abound- 
ing in  our  systems  of  elocution,  are  resolvable  into  mere  words, 
without  the  least  explanatory  meaning.  Nor  can  any  weight  of 
authority  give  them  the  power  of  description :  since  the  terms 
'sorrowful  expression,'  and  'tone  of  solemn  dignity'  in  the  pre- 
cepts of  an  accomplished  Elocutionist,  have  no  more  logical  pre- 
cision as  to  the  modes,  forms,  and  degrees  of  pitch,  time,  and  force 
of  voice,  than  tho.se  of  'fine-turned  cadence,'  and  'chaste  modu- 
lation,' in  the  idle  criticism  of  a  daily  gazette. 

All  arts  and  sciences  appear  under  two  different  conditions. 


xxxvi  INTRODUCTION. 

They  may  be  seen  througli  the  medium  of  terms  of  vague  signifi- 
cation, suited  to  the  limited  knowledge  and  feeble  senses 
of  the  ignorant,  in  every  caste  of  society.  Those  who  view 
them  under  this  condition,  in  vainly  pretending  to  discriminate, 
express  nothing  but  their  approbation.  In  the  other  light,  they 
are  shown  in  definite  delineation,  by  a  language  of  unchangeable 
meaning  ;  and  independently  of  the  perversions,  which  slender 
ability,  natural  temper,  or  momentary  humor  may  create.  He 
who  thus  views  an  art,  in  expressing  his  approbation,  always 
discriminates. 

Some  branches  of  the  art  of  speaking,  are,  even  at  this  late 
period,  scarcely  removed  from  the  first  of  these  conditions. 
This  might  seem  to  be  strange,  if  the  causes  were  not  so  mani- 
fest. The  specific  constituents  of  intonation,  force,  and  time, 
having  never  been  described  and  named,  the  attention  of  an  in- 
quirer has  consequently  wanted  the  stimulus  of  abundant  and 
definite  terms.  The  fulness  of  the  nomenclature  of  an  art  is  di- 
rectly proportional  to  the  degree  of  its  improvement ;  and  the  pre- 
cision of  its  terms  indicates  the  usefulness  of  its  systematic 
rules.  The  few  and  indeterminate  designations  of  the  modes  of 
the  voice  in  Reading,  compared  with  the  number  and  accuracy  of 
the  terms  in  Music,  imply  the  different  degrees  of  success  with 
which  each  has  been  cultivated.  The  inquirers  into  the  nature 
of  speech,  have  given  up  their  judgments  to  authority,  and  their 
pens  to  quotation.  The  musician  has  devoted  his  ear  to  obser- 
vation, and  his  labor  to  the  trial  and  application  of  its  truth. 
The  words,  quick,  slow,  long,  short,  loud,  soft,  rise,  fall  and  turn, 
indefinite  as  they  are,  include  nearly  all  the  discriminative  terms 
of  Elocution.  How  far  they  fall  short  of  an  enumeration  of  all 
the  precise  and  elegant  uses  of  the  voice,  and  how  fairly  the 
present  condition  of  our  knowledge  is  here  represented,  shall 
be  determined  by  an  age  to  come,  when  the  ear  will  have  made 
deliberate  examination. 

A  conviction  of  the  imperfect  state  of  our  knowledge  in  cer- 
tain branches  of  the  Art  of  Speaking,  first  suggested  the  de- 
sign of  the  ensuing  investigation :  while  a  hope  to  influence 
others,  to  assist  in  the  completion  of  a  desirable  measurement 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXvii 

and  method  of  the  voice,  produces  the  present  publication.  If 
it  shoukl  not  furnish  a  plan  for  the  future  establishment  of  the 
principles  of  Intonation,  Time,  and  Force,  I  must  still  desire  to 
believe,  without  controversy,  in  the  attainable  nature,  and  prac- 
tical benefits  of  such  a  work. 

I  cannot  withhold  from  this  place,  a  few  remarks  on  the  im- 
portance of  general  principles,  in  the  Fine  Arts ;  since  these 
principles  are  not  only  the  sure  foundation  of  a  stedfast  Intel- 
lectual Taste,  as  distinguished  from  a  Taste  of  changeable  sen- 
sations, and  caprice,  — 'but  are  at  the  same  time,  the  most  effec- 
tive means  for  advancing  These,  as  well  as  all  the  other  Arts. 
And  although  the  entire  want  of  such  principles,  for  the  •  go- 
vernment of  Intonation,  has  unnecessarily  led  to  the  belief  that 
they  cannot  be  instituted ;  it  will  be  shown,  in  the  following 
essay,  that  they  are  not  only  as  essential,  but  likewise  as  attain- 
able in  Elocution,  as  in  any  other  art  which  employs  the  judg- 
ment, and  interests  the  imagination. 

Those  persons  who  receive  the  highest  intellectual  enjoyment^ 
from  the  works  of  art,  know  well,  that  its  fulness  and  durability  ( 
are  chiefly  derived  from  that  power  of  broad  and  exact  discern-  ' 
ment,  which  is  acquired  by  experience,  and  time,  and  by  a  dis- 
ciplined inquiry  into  the  principles  of  taste  that  direct  their 
production.     The  knowledge  of  these  principles  constitutes  the  l, 
executive  faculty  of  the  artist,  and  gives  delight  to  him  who  con- 
templates the  work.     "Whatever  the  natural  sensibility  may  be, 
it  is  not  the  impression  of  form,  or  color,  or  sound,  merely  re- 
ceived by  the  eye  or  ear,  that  creates  an  enlightened  perception 
of  the  objects  of  the  fine  arts.     Delicate  organization,  call  it . 
genius  here  if  you  will,  is  indeed  essential  to  this  perception : 
but  it  is  the  united  activity  of  the  senses  and  the  mind,  in  the  work*^ 
of  observation  and  comparison,  together  with  the  development  of 
new,  and  the  application  of  pre-established  rules,  that  by  unfolding 
the  latent  tendencies  of  this  natural  susceptibility,  constitutes^ 
the  extended,  the  discriminating,  and  the  enduring  pleasure  of 
taste.     And  if  there  is  yet  to  be  discovered  some  surpassing 
efficacy  of  art,  it  can  never  be  accomplished,  except  through  the 
influence  of  comprehensive  and  still  accumulating  precepts ;   de- 


XXX  via 


INTRODUCTION. 


rived  indeed  from  the  study  of  nature,  but  applied  to  represent 
lier  chosen,  corrected,  and  combined  individualities  ;  and  thereb}^, 
under  the  human  eve  at  least,  to  generalize,  and  exalt  even 
that  Nature,  in  form  if  not  in  spirit,  above  herself. 

Besides  the  sources  of  contemplative  pleasure,  and  means  of 
improvement  in  an  art,  derived  from  principles,  their  powers  are 
operative  after  a  temporary  decline,  or  total  loss  of  its  prac- 
tice. They  eifect  a  speedy  restoration  when  the  influence  of 
evil  example  has  passed  away,  or  a  tradition  of  former  excel- 
lence has  produced  a  desire  for  its  reviva*!.  The  definite  descrip- 
tion of  elementary  constituents,  and  the  statement  of  the  rule 
/  of  their  use,  are  particularly  necessary  in  the  art  of  speaking- 
well;  since  its  passing  exercise  leaves  no. record  of  itself.  The 
works  of  art,  without  an  explanation  of  their  purposes,  arc  often 
as  deep  an  enigma,  as  the  works  of  nature :  and  a  long  course 
iof  observation  is  in  each  case  equally  required,  to  note  and  class 
their  phenomena,  and  to  discover  their  efficient  and  final  causes. 

Although  the  ancients  have  left  us  abundant  eulogistic  anec- 
dotes on  the  art  of  Painting,  they  have  done  little  more  than 
allude  to  those  principles  of  composition,  design,  light  and 
shade,  and  coloring,  by  Avhich  their  great  masters  improved 
upon  nature,  wlyle  they  professed  to  imitate  her ;  and  the  want 
of  a  knowledge  of  these,  even  with  the  benefits  of  patronage, 
was  one  cause  of  the  delay  of  at  least  two  centuries,  in  the  gra- 
dual progress  of  the  art  to  its  full  restoration,  in  modern 
Europe.  Stories  of  the  graces  of  ancient  Design  were  revolved 
in  the  minds  of  the  image-makers  of  Italy,  and  the  decorators 
of  cloisters,  like  the  problems  of  the  mechanical  wonders  of 
Archimedes,  that  were  not  to  be  solved  by  record  or  tradition. 

Ancient  architecture  has,  by  means  of  the  fragments  of  its 
ruins,  been  revived  in  modern  days,  to  a  degree  attainable 
through  precision  of  measurement ;  and  under  this  view,  its  re- 
mains have  furnished  the  highest  examples  for  imitation.  Deli- 
cate observation,  aided  by  a  refined  taste  in  other  arts,  is  yet  to 
be  employed,  in  order  to  retrieve  the  knowledge  of  those  princi- 
ples which  must  have  directed  the  taste  of  the  Greeks :  but  of 
which  Yitruvius  gave  only  an  imperfect  sketch,  while  compiling 


INTRODUCTION.  xxxlx 

a  popular  book  for  builders  ;  and  whicli  Pausanias,  in  his  hurried 
tour,  forgot  to  set  down,  as  the  proper  preface  to  his  inven- 
tory of  temples. 

If  the  Greek  writers  on  music  had  not  furnished  us  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  ancient  scales,  and  of  the  principles  that  di- 
rected their  construction  and  uses,  the  records  of  Choragic  monu- 
ments, and  the  accounts  of  the  Odeum  would  only  have  excited 
our  wonder  at  the  extraordinary  power  of  instrumental  sound. 
The  inventive  mind  of  Guido,  instead  of  completing  the  modern 
scale,  might  have  only  laid  its  foundation,  by  fixing  a  single  chord 
across  a  shell,  and  the  finished  system  of  modern  harmony 
might  now  have  been  but  just  begun. 

Such  is  the  view  we  take  of  arts,  directed  by  principles :  or  ^ 
in  other  words,  by  precepts  collected  from  expjerience  for  the  ( 
execution  of  great  and  enduring  works ;  precepts  accumulatedcJ 
by  the   efforts  of  genius    and   industry,    always   awaiting  the 
eventual  aid  of  Time,  Avho,  himself  never  working  impatiently, 
becomes    the  great  wonder-worker  of  all  intellectual,  as  well  as 
of  all  physical  creation. 

The  following  essay  exhibits  an  attempt  to   describe  the  con- 
stituents of  speech,  with  a  precision  that  may  render  criticism  U^ 
instructive,  and  afford  to  future  times,   the  means  of  compre-^^^ 
bending  its  discriminations. 

Discussions  on  the  subject  of  standard  principles,  in  some  of 
the  arts,  have  always  involved  the  question  of  their  origin :  and 
nature  has  generally  been  assumed  as  the  Source. 

There  are  two  conditions,  under  which  nature  affords  her  go- 
verning rules.  In  one,  she  is  taken  as  the  model  for  exact  imi-  i^^ 
tation,  in  those  branches  of  art,  which  profess  to  copy  her  full 
and  actual  details ;  as  exemplified  by  the  faultless  and  exquisite 
artistic  delineations,  in  the  various  departments  of  natural  his- 
tory. Here  individual  nature  is  the  standard ;  and  here  the 
excellence  of  art  consists,  merely  in  the  whole-truth  of  the  re- 
semblance, without  the  least  superfluous  ideal-touch.  In  the 
other,  where  it  is  the  purpose  of  art  to  exalt  its  creations,  by  ^"^ 
an  imaginative  correcting  of  what  we  call  the  exceptionable  de- 
tails of  nature,  or  by  a  selection  from  her  scattered  constituents 
of  beauty,  the  rule  is  the  result  of  a  congenial  knowledge,  and 


xl  INTRODUCTION. 

judgment,  exhibited  in  strong  similarity  among  persons  of  equal 
sentiment  and  cultivation  :  -whicli,  if  it  does  not  prove  conformity 
of  taste  to  be  the  development  of  an  invariable  law  of  nature, 
in  the  human  mind,  at  least  affords  education  the  means  to  trace 
the  causes  of  beauty  and  deformity ;  and  thus  to  ordain  a  satis- 
factory and  enduring  system  of  laws  for  itself. 

The  uses  of  the  voice  have  not  yet  been  brought  under  either 
of  these  conditions.  Nature,  or  what  is  called  nature  in  this 
case, — unenlightened  humanity,  cannot  be  taken  as  a  model  for 
imitation  in  cases  of  individual  utterance ;  since  they  nevt^gi*  fur- 
nish a  single  instance,  worthy,  in  all  respects,  to  be  copied : 
and  from  the  want  of  a  full  knowledge  and  definite  nomencla- 
ture of  the  constituents  of  speech,  there  has  never  been  that 
clear  perception  of  the  characteristic  causes  of  beauty  and  de- 
formity, which  would  warrant  the  institution  of  a  standard,  either 
by  the  method  of  selection,  or  by  that  of  the  exalting  or  cor- 
rective power  of  the  imagination.  The  highest  achievements  in 
statuary,  painting,  and  the  landscape,  consist  of  those  ideal 
forms  and  compositions,  never  perhaps  found  singly-existent,  or 
purely  associated  in  nature ;  but  which  in  the  estimation  of 
Cultivated  Taste,  and  its  perfecting  agency,  may  far  surpass 
her  individual  productions. 

The  following  analytic  history  of  the  human  voice,  will  enable 
an  Elocutionist  of  any  nation,  to  frame  a  didactic  system  for 
his  own  native  and  familiar  speech.  Since  it  shows, —  the  vocal 
Isigns  of  expression  have  a  universality,  coexistent  with  the  pre- 
valence of  human  feelings :  and  that  a  grammar  of  elocution, 
like  that  of  music,  must  be  one  and  the  same  for  the  whole 
family  of  man.  lie  will  also  find  the  outline  of  a  system  of 
principles,  I  have  ventured  to  propose,  on  a  survey  of  those 
excellencies  of  utterance,  which  seem  to  me,  accommodated  to 
the  temper  and  habits  of  the  English  ear  ;  and  which,  in  analogy 
with  the  above  named  arts,  may  be  called  the  Ideal  Beauty  of 
speech. 

This  undertaking  is  indeed  opposed  to  a  vulgar  error.  The 
imperceptible  nature,  as  it  is  affirmed,  and  the  fancied  infinity 
of  the  vocal  movements,  together  with  the  rapid  course  and  per- 


INTRODUCTION.  xli 

petual  variation  of  utterance  are  considered  as  insuperable  ob- 
stacles to  a  precise  description  of  the  detail  and  system  of  the 
speaking  voice.  This  objection  will  be  hereafter  answered, 
otherwise  than  by  contentious  argument.  But  we  may  here,  only 
ask,  if  there  is  no  other  opportunity  to  count  the  radii  of  a  wheel 
than  in  the  race ;  or  to  number  and  describe  the  individuals  of 
a  herd,  except  in  the  promiscuous  mingling  of  their  flight. 
Music,  with  its  infinitude  of  details,  would  still  have  been  a  mys- 
tery, if  the  doctrine  of  its  intervals  and  time  could  have  been 
caught,  only  from  the  multiplied  combinations  and  rapid  execu- 
tion of  the  orchestra.  The  accuracy  of  mathematical  calcula- 
tion, joined  with  the  sober  patience  of  the  ear  over  the  slow 
practice  of  its  elements,  has  not  had  more  success  in  disclosing 
the  system  of  this  beautiful  and  luminous  science,  than  a  similar 
watchfulness  over  the  deliberate  movements  of  speech,  will  afl"ord 
for  the  discovery  and  designation  of  the  hitherto  unrecorded 
functions  of  the  voice.  If  there  is  any  purpose  in  the  works  of 
nature,  or  any  foredoomed  eflSciency  of  means  to  complete  the 
circle  of  her  designs,  we  shall  find,  on  the  development  of  her 
vocal  system,  some  uniform  and  appropriate  rules,  within  the 
pale  of  which  the  voice  should  be  variously  exercised,  to  give 
light  to  the  understanding,  and  pleasure  to  the  ear. 

The  accurate  sciences  and  the  fine  arts,  without  regard  to  the 
specific  claims  of  each,  have  been  set  in  wider  opposition  than 
is  altogether  justified,  by  a  view  of  the  grounds  of  their  respec- 
tive truths.  The  careless  argument  assumes  that  taste  is  merely 
a  variable  feeling,  and  has  no  rule  of  grandeur,  grace,  and  beauty, 
in  the  selected  or  imaginative  uses  of  form,  color,  and  sound. 
If  there  is  a  general  agreement  among  persons  of  equal  taste 
and  education  in  the  arts,  this  agreement  must  be  founded  on 
some  universal  principle  of  the  cultivated  intellect.  The  con-, 
sent  therefore,  arising  out  of  the  nature  of  the  mind,  gives  a 
character  of  truth  to  the  principles  of  taste,  analogous  at  least 
to  that,  which  by  a  like  law  of  the  mind,  in  a  universal  consent 
on  the  subject  of  abstract  relationships,  forms  the  full  and  un- 
questionable truth  of  the  accurate  sciences.  Under  this  view 
of  the  foundation  of  the  principles  of  the  fine  arts,  we  must 
4 


Xlii  INTRODUCTION. 

find  the  scale  of  their  trutli,  as  that  of  the  truth  of  the  exact 
sciences,  in  the  measure  of  the  agreement  of  those  who  cultivate 
them.  He  who  knows  that  all  men  find  the  same  properties  in 
a  circle,  may  learn,  by  a  similar  induction,  that  when  the  mind 
is  cleared  of  its  human  rubbish, —  particular  excellencies  of 
the  painter,  poet,  architect,  orator,  statuary,  composer,  land- 
scape improver,  and  actor,  will  universally  reach  the  spring 
of  congenial  perception,  in  those  who  observe  and  reflect 
upon  their  works,  and  draw  therefrom  a  stream  of  ever-during 
approbation.  The  claim  to  accuracy  of  knowledge,  is  the  inhe- 
rent right  of  every  art.  It  is  not  consistent  with  the  law  of 
nature,  that  Truth,  upon  her  simple  and  impartial  seat  within 
the  mind,  should  have  her  favorites  ;  let  all  be  equally  strict  and 
studious,  and  she  will  reward  them  all  alike. 

Though  future  times  may  possibly  break  down  the  mischievous 
distinction,  which  assigns  a  different  kind  of  logic  to  different 
departments  of  knowledge :  and  may  subject  all  nature  and  art 
equally  to  the  simple  and  sufficient  process  of  Observation  and 
Classification :  still  it  may  well  seem  to  the  present  age,  that 
between  the  perception  of  beauty  in  the  arts,  and  of  the  ratios 
of  mathematical  quantity,  there  is  little  similarity.  But  there 
is  perhaps,  no  other  reason  for  the  acknowledged  certainty  of 
the  relationships  of  magnitude  and  number,  than  the  general 
consent  of  those  who  inquire  into  them.  We  agree  upon  them, 
because  we  all  pursue  a  like  connected  train  of  observation,  call 
it  reasoning  here  if  you  Avill :  because  we  employ  the  same 
precision  of  terms :  because  we  are  more  dispassionate  in  our 
observations  and  comparisons,  on  this  subject,  than  on  others 
that  touch  the  pride,  and  vanity,  and  interests  of  mankind : 
because  we  more  strictly  contemplate  the  succession,  and  more 
comprehensively  embrace  the  scope  of  premises  involved  in  a 
conclusion :  and  finally,  not  because  we  employ,  on  the  exact 
sciences,  a  different  mental  method,  for  the  mind  has  only  one 
method,  but  because  the  more  ambitious  and  worldly  attractions 
of  other  subjects  of  knowledge,  have  left  these  sciences  to  the 
retired  and  self-satisfied  occupation  of  more  strict  and  patient 
iuquirers.     It  is  trifling,  to  urge,  that  the  properties  of  a  conic 


INTRODUCTION.  xliii 

section  are  eternal  entities,  quite  independent  of  onr  accidental 
perception  of  them,  and  that  they  would  still  exist  as  truths, 
though  they  might  never  be  demonstrated.  Truth  is  a  term  not 
wanted  by  nature,  and  only  invented  for  the  uses  of  a  disputa- 
tious and  imperfectly-percipient  being.  .  Besides,  the  question 
before  us  is  of  knowledge,  not  of  notions.  Otherwise  we  might, 
with  like  proof  of  an  abstract  and  eternal  rule  of  taste,  assert 
that  the  proportions  of  a  Greek  column  existed  throughout  all 
time,  unhewn  and  unseen  in  the  quarry ;  like  that  conceit  of 
old  which  declared, —  the  Venus  of  Gnidos  was  not  the  work  of 
Praxiteles  :  since  nature  herself  had  concreted  within  the  marble, 
the  boundary  but  hidden  surface  of  its  beauty :  the  artist,  when 
the  statue  came  to  light,  having  only  produced  the  fragments  of 
his  chisel,  and  the  dust  of  his  file.  I  speak  here  against  an 
unlimited  assertion  of  the  variableness  of  the  principles  of 
taste,  and  not  with  the  presumption,  even  to  feign  for  them,  a 
comparison  with  any  established  principle  of  the  exact  sciences. 
But  there  are  no  degrees  in  truth  :  therefore,  every  mathematical 
inquiry,  which  remains  without  proof  or  solution,  must  submit 
to  its  logical. classification  with  the  precepts  of  the  arts :  though 
happily  distinguished  from  them,  in  being  free  from  the  interfer- 
ence of  Ignorance  and  Conceit.  And  yet  I  may  remark,  in 
anticipation  of  what  will  be  shown  hereafter,  that  the  Art  of 
Speech,  in  three  of  its  important  modes,  namely.  Time,  with  its 
measurable  moments  ;  Intonation,  with  its  measurable  intervals ; 
and  Force,  with  its  measurable  degrees ;  though  not  admissible 
within  the  pale  of  exact  calculation,  is  yet  upon  its  border :  and 
when,  through  future  cultivation,  it  shall  take  its  destined  place 
among  the  liberal  arts,  it  will  be  found,  at  least  beside  Architec- 
ture and  Music,  if  indeed,  from  its  principles  of  intonation 
being  broadly  founded  in  nature,  it  may  not  claim  to  be  before 
them. 

Controversies  on  points,  involving  the  leading  principles  of 
taste,  are  generally,  contentions  of  the  ignorant  with  artists,  or 
with  one  another ;  and  rarely  to  any  great  degree,  of  the  differ- 
ences of  educated  and  intelligent  artists  among  themselves.  If 
the  latter  fail  in  setting  their  authority,  or  in  extending  the 


xliv  INTRODUCTION. 

benefits  of  their  principles,  over  the  presumptuous  part  of  the 
multitude,  it  does  not  prove  that  some  system  of  principles  may 
not  prevail  in  the  arts,  or  that  artists  do  not  enjoy  the  delightful 
effects  of  it ;  but,  that  tliere  is  more  assuming  vanity  in  the 
•world  than  fellowship  in  knowledge.  Silence,  or  modest  inquiry 
is  the  duty  of  the  ignorant ;  and  where  neither  is  performed, 
nature  seems,  in  their  case,  to  have  departed  from  her  plan  in 
animal  creation,  by  not  withholding  from  them  the  litigious 
faculty  of  speech. 

These  differences  cannot,  of  themselves,  call  in  question  the 
authority  of  principles  in  the  arts.  Most  of  the  phenomena  of 
cause  and  effect,  in  Natural  Philosophy,  are  as  obvious  as  proofs 
of  the  properties  of  curves,  by  the  most  exact  calculus.  Still, 
pretenders  in  every  condition  of  life,  are  constantly  trespassing 
within  the  bounds  of  this  science,  by  the  absurdity  of  their 
reasonings  with  each  other,  on  points  of  natural  knowledge. 
Knaves  exhibit  their  schemes  for  producing  Perpetual  Motion, 
and  the  whole  host  of  learned  and  unlearned  credulity  cannot 
change  the  influence  of  those  principles,  which  as  yet,  have 
determined  the  mechanical  impossibility. 

There  is  a  wholesome  kind  of  conviction  in  the  mind  of  fools, 
which  forces  them  to  confess  their  want  of  knowledge  in  mathe- 
matics, if  they  have  not  studied  that  science.  But  taste,  say 
they,  is  natural,  therefore  every  one  should  have  his  own.  It 
is  true,  every  one  knows  what  will  please  himself,  in  his  igno- 
rance ;  but  the  wise  alone,  know  what  will  please  the  intelligent, 
in  their  education. 

In  thus  advocating  the  necessity  of  precepts  for  the  promotion 
and  government  of  taste,  I  deprecate  any  inference  that  these 
precepts,  by  furnishing  available,  though  even  conventional 
rules  for  an  art,  tend  to  confine  it  to  an  unalterable.standard. 
Established  principles  are  not  as  the  barrier  of  a  flood,  which  in 
protecting  from  inroad,  sometimes  restrictively  prevents  the 
opportunities  of  further  conquest ;  but  as  the  guide  and  escort 
of  the  arts,  to  acquisitions  of  wider  glory.  With  an  exception  of 
the  misused  principle  of  Variety,  their  influence  over  the  arts 
has  always  insured  their  advancement,  and  accompanied  their 


INTRODUCTION.  xlv 

exaltation.  The  ambitious  search  after  mere  Novelty,  which 
under  another  name,  means  Variety  in  the  successions  of 
fashion  and  of  schools,  has,  through  the  restless  designs  of 
vanity,  and  the  influence  of  unguarded  patronage,  ruined  more 
arts  than  all  the  destructive  ignorance  of  the  barbarian. 

The  high  accomplishments  in  Elocution  are  supposed  to  be, 
universally,  the  unacquired  gifts  of  genius,  and  to  consist  of 
powers  and  'graces  beyond  the  reach  of  art.'  So  seem  the 
plainest  services  of  arithmetic  to  a  savage :  and  so,  to  the  slave, 
seem  all  the  ways  of  music,  which  modern  art  has  so  accurately 
penned,  as  to  time,  and  tune,  and  momentary  grace.  Ignorance 
knows  not  what  lias  been  done ;  indolence  thinks  nothing  can 
be  done ;  and  both  uniting,  borrow  from  the  abused  eloquence 
of  poetry,  an  aphorism  to  justify  supineness  of  inquiry. 

It  has  been  said, —  a  discovery  of  the  full  resources  of  the 
arts  affords  the  means  of  debasement,  or  of  perversion  from 
their  original  purposes.  This  indeed  has  sometimes  been  the 
case.  By  increasing  the  difliculties  of  musical  execution,  in 
the  voice  and  on  instruments,  this  art  is,  through  the  singulari- 
ties of  mechanical  skill,  the  varied  tricks  of  interest  and 
ambition,  and  the  waywardness  of  undiscerning  patronage,  fre- 
quently ex;ercised  to  the  indifference  or  disgust  of  those,  whose 
approbation  would  be  durable :  and  to  the  thoughtless  satisfac- 
tion of  those,  whom  the  united  caprice  of  ignorance  and  fashion 
may  urge  equally  to  support  or  to  destroy. 

A  full  knowledge  of  the  principles   and  practice  of  an   art, 
enables  an  industrious  and  aspiring  votary  to  approach  perfcct- 
tion ;  Avhile  idle  followers  are  contented  with  the  defaults  of 
imitation.     With  most  men,  the  labor  of  the  mind,  equally  with  ' 
that  of  the  body,  ceases  with  the  removal  of  its  necessity ;  and , 
a  shameless  dependence  on  the  intellectual  alms  of  others,  is  not  ■ 
less  common,  than  the  populous  growth  of  pauperism  upon  the 
increasing  provisions  of  benevolence.     The  unbounded  distribu- 
tions of  genius,  prompt  to  excuses  for  indolence,  and  to  claims  _^' 
for   succour,  and    the  empire  itself  of  the   art,   at  last  falls 
under  the  insurrection  and  anarchy  of  its  former  servile  depend- 
ants. 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION. 

It  is  thus  readily  admitted  that  a  full  analysis  of  speech, 
together  with  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  principles  in  the 
art,  will  not  always  exempt  it  from  abuse  or  ruin.  But  I  cannot 
therefore,  refrain  from  recommending  a  mode  of  cultivation, 
that  must  insure  the  highest  satisfaction,  while  the  art  remains 
uncorrupted,  and  that,  by  the  record  of  its  definitions  and 
method,  will  afford  the  best  means  for  any  needed  restoration. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  going  too  far,  to  say,  the  art  of  speaking, 
when  founded  in  nature,  and  defended  as  well  as  directed  by 
her  rules,  does  not  consist  of  those  purposes  and  means,  that 
are  liable,  through  an  ambitious  love  of  change,  to  end  in  cor- 
ruption. Some  of  the  fine  arts  may  receive  the  addition  of 
Ornament,  properly  so  called :  which  in  its  excess,  is  alas,  too 
often  the  precursor  of  their  ruin ;  and  which  holding  but  a 
separable  relationship  to  its  subject  or  principal,  leaves  a  refined 
and  guarded  taste  to  order  the  degree  of  its  application,  or  its 
total  exclusion.  The  art  of  speaking  is  subject  to  no  such  con- 
ditions. The  embodying  of  sense  by  sound,  and  the  coloring 
of  feeling  by  its  expressive  signs,  are  fixed  in  their  amenity  by 
thie  unalterable  instinct  of  nature,  or  if  this  is  not  granted,  by 
the  satisfactory  decisions  of  universal  convention.  With  this 
ordained  and  stcdfast  purpose  of  the  voice,  all  addition  to  the 
numbered  signs  of  its  language  is  redundancy,  and  all  mis- 
placed utterance  is  affectation. 

The  following  history  of  the  voice  is  addressed  especially  to 
those  who  pursue  science  with  attention  and  perseverance ;  who 
prefer  its  useful  accuracy,  to  its  ostentation ;  who  are  satisfied 
with  the  'few  —  but  fit  audience;'  and  who  know,  from  their 
own  happy  experience,  that  exactness  of  knowledge  is  the  bright 
felicity  of  intellect.  To  inquirers  of  this  character,  it  need  not 
be  said,  that  even  the  rapid  flight  of  spoceh  may  be  more  easily 
followed,  when  the  general  principles  of  its  movements  are 
understood.  The  hesitation  of  the  ear  will  be  prompted  by  the 
mind,  and  we  shall  more  readily  discern  Avliat  is,  by  knowing 
what  ought  to  be. 

After  the  preceding  representation  of  our  limited  knowledge 
of  the  functions  of  the  voice,  and  upon  the  promises  of  a  more 


INTRODUCTION.  xlvii 

extended  and  precise  analysis,  tlie  reader  must  be  prepared  to 
find  in  the  following  essay,  a  new,  but  I  hope,  not  a  distracting 
nomeclature.  When  unnamed  additions  are  made  to  the  system 
and  detail  of  an  art,  terms  must  be  invented  for  them  :  and  even 
when  its  known  phenomena  are  exhibited  under  varied  relation- 
ships, the  purpose  of  description  is  less  perplexed  by  the  novelty 
of  terms,  than  by  an  attempt  to  give  another  application  or 
meaning  to  former  names. 

Many  of  the  varieties  of  pitch  having  been  accurately  desig- 
nated and  clearly  arranged  in  music,  its  applicable  nomenclature 
is,  in  this  .essay,  transferred  to  the  description  of  speech :  and 
whenever  a  language  has  been  purposely  framed,  I  have  endea- 
vored to  make  it,  by  direct  or  metaphorical  use,  purely  explan- 
atory of  the  nature  of  the  vocal  functions. 

Although  i  have  gone  deeply  into  the  philosophical  history 
of  speech,  and  have  spared  no  pains  in  illustrating  whatever 
might,  from  its  novelty,  be  otherwise  obscure;  I  have  not  pre- 
tended to  make  specific  application  of  all  the  principles  here 
laid  down,  to  every  case  of  the  reading  and  speaking  voice. 
As  the  design  of  this  essay  is,  to  promulgate  a  new  Institute  of 
Elocution,  I  have  endeavored  to  accommodate  the  full  requi- 
sitions of  the  subject,  to  the  limitation  of  my  time,  by  brief 
generalities  of  explanation  and  method :  which,  in  holding  the 
light  of  instruction  broadly  but  distinctly  over  the  whole,  may 
enable  others  to  perceive  the  nature  and  relationship  of  the 
parts ;  and  thus  with  the  closer  and  more  particular  hand  of 
detail,  to  unite  in  purpose  for  the  completion  of  the  work.  The 
full  development  of  an  art,  in  all  its  practical  bearings,  must 
be  the  united  product  of  many,  and  of  their  lives.  Here  is  the 
result  of  the  leisure  of  about  three  years,  snatched  from  the 
daily  duty  of  extensive  professional  occupation.  If  in  dicharg- 
ing  the  duties  of  that  profession,  I  have  selected  from  its  physi- 
ological department,  a  subject  of  inquiry  which  gives  its  ulti- 
mate services  in  another  art,  I  have  not  therein  forgotten  that 
nature,  Avho  never  is  ungrateful  to  the  eyes  that  watch  her,  has 
still  her  secrets  in  the  human  frame,  yet  to  bo  told  for  the  health 
or  happiness  of  man :  the  future  search  after  which,  may  not  be 


xlviii  INTRODUCTION. 

without  success,  and  Avill  not  be  without  the  satisfaction  expe- 
rienced in  conducting  these  offered  scrutinies  of  the  tongue  and 
ear. 

•  The  reception  which  may  await  the  following  work,  can  be  of 
no  important  interest  to  me.  By  taking  care  to  antedate  any 
expected  season  of  its  penalties  and  rewards,  I  have  already 
found  them  in  the  varied  perplexity  and  pleasure  of  its  accom- 
plishment. I  leave  it  therefore  for  the  service  of  him,  who  may 
in  future  desire  to  read  the  history  of  his  voice.  The  system 
here  presented  will  satisfy  much  of  his  curiosity :  for  I  feel 
assured,  by  the  result  of  the  rigid  method  of  observation 
employed  throughout  the  inquiry,  that  if  science  should  ever 
come  to  one  consent  on  this  point,  it  will  not  differ  essentially 
from  the  ensuing  record.  The  world  has  long  asked  for  light 
on  this  subject.  It  may  not  choose  to  accept  it  now  :  but  having 
idly  suffered  its  own  opportunity  for  discovery  to  go  by,  it  must, 
under  any  capricious  postponement,  at  last  receive  it  here. 

Sir  Joshua  Eeynolds  has  a  pretty  thought,  on  the  labors  of 
ambition  and  the  choice  of  fame.  I  do  not  remember  his  words 
exactly ;  but  he  figures  the  present  age  and  posterity  as  rivals, 
and  those  who  receive  the  favor  of  one,  as  being  outcasts  from 
the  other.  This  condition,  while  it  allows  a  full  but  transient 
satisfaction  to  the  zeal  which  works  only  for  a  present  reward, 
does  not  exclude  all  prospect  from  those  who  are  contented  in 
the  anticipation  of  deferred  success.  Truth,  whose  first  steps 
should  be  always  vigorous  and  alone,  is  often  obliged  to  lean  for 
support  and  progress  on  the  arm  of  Time ;  who  then  only,  when 
supporting  her,  seems  to  have  laid  aside  his  wings. 


Philadelphia,  January,  1827. 


THE 


PHILOSOPHY 


OP 


THE  HUMAN  VOICE 


SECTION  I. 

Of  the  general  Divisions  of  Vocal  Sound:  witli  a  more  'particu- 
lar account  of  its  Pitch. 

All  the  constituents  of  the  human  voice,  may  be  referred  to 
the  five  following  Modes : 

QUALITY, 

FORCE, 

TIME, 

ABRUPTNESS, 

PITCH. 

The  detail  of  these  five  modes,  and  of  the  multiplied  combina- 
tion of  their  several  forms  and  varieties,  includes  the  enumera- 
tion of  all  the  Articulating  and  the  Expressive  powers  of  speech. 

It  w^ould  be  fruitless  to  attempt  to  give  an  analytic  history 
of  the  voice,  without  the  use  of  definite  terms  for  its  appreciable 
modes.  It  is  therefore  proper  to  inquire,  how  far  common 
nomenclature  fulfils  the  purposes  of  precision ;  and  by  what 
means  any  obvious  deficiency  may  be  supplied. 

The  terms  by  which  the  Quality/  or  kind  of  voice  is  distin- 
guished, are, —  rough,  smooth,  harsh,  full,  slender,  thin,  musical, 
and  some  others  of  the  same  metaphorical  structure.     They  are 


50  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

sufficiently  numerous :  and  as  descriptive  as  possible,  without 
reference  to  vocal  and  exemplar  sounds.  An  attempt  towards 
this  kind  of  illustration  has  been  made,  by  variously  distinguish- 
ing the  singing  voice,  according  to  its  resemblance  to  the  sound 
of  the  reed,  the  string,  and  the  musical-glass.  The  voices  of 
inferior  animals  also  afford  analogies  to  the  variety  of  quality 
in  the  human  voice. 

For  the  specifications  of  Force  we  use  the  words, —  strong, 
weak,  feeble,  loud,  soft,  forcible,  and  faint.  These  are  indefinite 
in  their  indication,  and  without  any  fixed  relationship  in  degree. 
Music  has  more  orderly  and  numerously  distinguished  the  varie- 
ties of  force,  by  its  series  of  terms  from  Pianissimo  to  Fortis- 
simo. I  shall,  in  its  proper  place,  make  some  new  distinctions 
in  the  manner  of  employing  this  mode. 

Time,  in  the  art  of  speaking,  is  subdivided  into, —  long,  short, 
quick,  slow,  and  rapid.  Music  has  a  more  precise  scale  of  rela- 
tionship, in  its  order  of  signs  from  semibreve  to  double-demi- 
semiquaver.  The  single  or  unaccompanied  sound  of  speech  does 
not  require  that  nicety  in  Time,  which  the  concerting  of  music 
demands ;  yet  there  is  need  of  more  precision  in  designating  its 
degrees,  than  the  usual  terms  of  prosody  aff'ord.  Mr.  Steele 
has  given,  in  his  work,  a  notation  of  time,  sufficient  for  all  the 
syllabic  purposes  of  discourse.  I  shall  hereafter  make  a  division 
of  this  mode,  with  reference  to  English  syllables,  and  to  their 
employment  in  speech. 

I  vise  the  term  Abruptness,  to  signify  the  sudden  and  full 
discharge  of  sound,  as  contradistinguished  from  its  more  gradual 
emission.  Abruptness  is  well  represented  by  the  explosive  notes 
which  may  be  executed  on  the  bassoon,  and  some  other  wind 
instruments.  I  have  given  this  mode  of  the  voice,  the  place 
and  importance  of  a  general  head,  not  only  as  an  expressive 
agent  in  speech,  but  because  its  characteristic  explosion  is  pecu- 
liar, and  quite  distinct  from  the  nature  of  Force ;  with  which, 
from  its  admitting  of  degrees  of  intensity,  it  might  seem  to  be 
identical. 

The  variations  of  Pitch  are  denoted  by  the  words, —  rise  and 
fall,  high  and  low.     The  vague  import  and  the  insufficiency  of 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  51 

this  division  were  shown  in  our  introduction :  and  as  the  follow- 
ing history  of  the  voice  makes  especial  reference  to  this  mode, 
and  gives  a  minute  detail  of  its  various  forms,  it  is  necessary  to 
adopt  a  conformable,  and  more  definite  nomenclature. 

It  happened  well,  for  our  assistance  in  developing  the  nature 
of  speech,  that  most  of  the  phenomena  of  pitch  were  long  ago 
observed,  analyzed,  and  named,  in  the  proper  science  of  music. 
Some  of  its  varieties  however,  in  the  speaking  voice,  are  not 
technically  known  in  that  science.  For  these  I  have  made  a 
language.  But  most  of  the  movements  of  the  musical  system 
are  also  found  in  speech.  It  is  advisable  therefore,  to  adopt 
musical  terms  for  these  identical  functions :  since  they  are 
already  known  to  many,  and  may,  through  elementary  treatises, 
be  easily  learned  by  all ;  and  since  the  application  of  different 
names  to  things  of  essential  resemblance,  would  counteract  one 
great  object  of  philosophy;  which  is,  to  include  all  similar 
phenomena  under  the  same  nominal  classes :  notwithstanding 
they  may  happen  to  be  separated,  by  place  and  name,  in  our 
artificial  arrangements.  For  in  collecting  facts  from  Nature, 
who  is  no  respecter  of  position  or  title,  we  must  take  them  where 
we  find  them,  and  class  them,  just  as  they  agree.  I  shall  there- 
fore give  a  concise  account  of  the  terms  by  which  the  phenomena 
of  pitch  are  distinguished  in  music. 

In  entering  upon  this  elementary  and  important  explanation, 
wherein  a  recognition  by  the  ear,  of  sounds  merely  described,  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  comprehending  the  subsequent  parts  of 
this  work,  I  must  beg  the  reader  not  to  be  discouraged  by 
temporary  difficulty.  He  who  has  been  taught  the  principles  of 
instrumental  or  of  vocal  music,  and  is  able  to  execute  accurately, 
what  is  called  the  Scale  or  6rammut,  will  understand  the  follow- 
ing descriptions  and  divisions,  without  much  hesitation.  He 
who  knows  nothing  of  the  relations  of  musical  sounds,  nor  of 
the  regular  scale  by  which  they  have  been  arranged,  must  on 
this,  as  on  so  many  other  subjects  of  the  school  which  need 
perceptible  illustration,  have  recourse  to  a  living  instructor.  He 
can  generally  find  at  hand,  instrumental  performers,  or  singing 


52  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

masters,  or  the  clerk  of  some  neighboring  church,  who  will 
exemplify  to  his  satisfaction  all  that  is  merely  descriptive  here. 

The  reader  is  not  referred  to  musicians  and  singers,  for  any 
assistance  in  his  application  of  the  principles  of  music  to  the 
analysis  of  speech.  The  system  of  mechanical  formality  to 
which  they  have  in  a  great  degree  circumscribed  their  views, 
together  with  the  wasteful  industry  of  their  perpetual  practice 
upon  difficulties,  has,  generally  speaking,  so  limited  their  per- 
ceptive faculty,  that  they  are  often  the  last  to  see,  in  the  rela- 
tions of  other  things,  even  the  most  striking  analogy  to  the 
principles  of  their  art.  But  their  own  art,  merely  as  the  routine 
of  art,  they  know  well.  To  them  therefore  the  reader  is  referred, 
merely  for  the  exemplification  of  a  technical  nomenclature,  that 
I  have  here,  only  the  means  of  words  and  diagram  to  explain. 
,  The  term  Pitch  is  applied  to  the  variations  of  musical  sound, 
between  its  lowest  and  its  highest  appreciable  degree.  This 
variation  between  gravity  and  acuteness,  is  represented  in  the 
human  voice,  by  the  two  extremes  of  hoarseness,  and  screaming. 

The  different  degrees  of  Pitch  in  music  arc  denoted  by  what 
is  called  the  Scale :  the  formation  of  which  may  be  thus  illus- 
trated : 

When  the  bow  is  drawn  across  a  string  of  a  Violin,  and  the 
finger  at  the  same  time  gradually  moved,  with  continued  pres- 
sure on  the  string,  from  its  lower  attachment  to  any  distance 
upwards,  a  mewing  sound,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  is  heard.  This 
mewing  is  caused  by  the  gradual  change  from  gravity  to  acute- 
ness, through  the  gradual  shortening  of  the  string :  and  as  it 
thus  rises  in  acuteness  by  an  uninterrupted  line  of  momentary 
changes,  it  is  called  a  continuous  sound.  I  shall  call  it  Concrete 
sound.     This  movement  of  pitch,  on  the  violin,  is  termed  a  Slide. 

The  reader  may  himself  exemplify  this  concrete  sound,  by 
uttering  the  single  syllable  aye,  as  if  he  were  asking  a  question 
with  the  expression  of  earnest  surprise,  yet  rather  deliberately ; 
beginning  at  the  lowest,  and  ending  at  the  highest  limit  of  his 
collo(|uial  voice.  The  gradual  rising  movement  in  this  case 
is  concrete :  But  as  the  voice,  and  any  other  tunable  sound 
may  be  continued  in  one  uninterrupted  movement  upon  the  same 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  53 

line  of  pitch,  without  rising  or  falling  ;  it  is  proper  to  remark 
here,  that  the  term  Concrete,  is  in  this  essay,  applied  only  to  an 
uninterrupted  movement  in  a  rising,  and  in  a  falling  direction. 

Now,  the  sounds  of  what  is  called  the  Scale  in  Music,  are  not 
continuous  or  concrete  ;  but  are  made  —  by  drawing  the  bow,  only 
while  the  finger  is  held  stationary  at  certain  successive  places  on 
the  string  :  thus  showing  an  interruption  of  the  continuous  up- 
ward slide.  These  places  are_  sevenjn  number,  and  their  dis- 
tances from  each  other  are  determined  by  a  scientific  rule  for 
subdividing  the  string,  which  we  need  not  consider  here.  Other 
sounds,  still  ascending  on  the  string  above  these  seven,  may  be 
made,  by  a  similar  interrupted  progression.  But  since  the 
second  series  of  seven,  though  of  higher  pitch,  yet  adjusted  by 
the  same  rule,  do  each. to  each  in  order,  so  nearly  accord  with 
the  first  seven,  that  they  may  be  considered  as  a  kind  of  repeti- 
tion of  them,  —  and  as  the  same  is  true  of  other  series  of  seven, 
that  may  be  formed  between  the  lowest  and  the  highest  limit  of 
sound,  —  the  whole  extent  of  variation  in  acuteness  and  gravity, 
is  regarded  as  consisting  of  but  the  simple  scale  of  seven  sounds, 
in  different  series  or  ranges  of  pitch. 

In  the  margin  of  the  following  page,  a  diagram  represents 
the  places  where  we  suppose  the  string  to  be  pressed  when  the 
bow  is  drawn  :  the  black  disks  on  the  line,  at  the  places  of  two 
of  the  repeated  series  of  seven  sounds  being  marked  numerically  : 
the  initials  T  and  S,  respectively  denoting  the  terms  Tone  and 
Semitone,  which  will  presently  be  explained. 

Upon  comparing  this  picture  with  the  above  account  of  the 
production  of  concrete  sound,  and  supposing  the  concrete  pro- 
gression upon  the  string  to  be  represented  by  the  continuous 
vertical  line,  on  which  these  numerical  places  are  marked  by  the 
disks,  it  is  clear,  that  portions  of  the  concrete  must  be  unheard, 
when  the  bow  is  drawn,  only  while  the  finger  is  stationary  at  the 
several  places.  The  sounds  thus  produced  at  these  places, 
omitting  the  intermediate  concrete,  I  shall  call  Discrete  Sounds : 
And  these,  when  heard  successively  in  a  given  order,  as  repre- 
sented by  the  diagram,  constitute  a  Discrete  Scale.* 

*  This  continuity  and  this  disjunction  of  the  line  of  pitch  are  known  to  most 
musicians,  only  under  the  respective  names  of  Slide,  and  Scale.     The  terms  con- 


54 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 


©141 
13 

e  12 

X 

o  11  <■ 

•  10 


71 


9     6 


r.2 


The  explanation  thus  given  of  the  manner  of 
concrete  and  discrete  progressions,  in  an  upward 
direction,  is  to  be  understood  of  the  downward 
course  also,  under  a  reverse  movement  of  the 
gradual  slide,  and  of  the  skip,  on  the  string. 

The  variations  of  pitch  on  most  musical  instru- 
ments are  discrete.  The  violin  and  its  varieties 
derive  much  of  their  expressive  power,  from 
being  susceptible  of  the  concrete  movement ;  and 
it  is  one  of  the  great  sources,  as  will  be  shown 
hereafter,  of  Expression  in  the  human  voice. 

The  several  places  at  which  we  suppose  the 
sounds  to  be  made  in  the  discrete  progression, 
are  numerically  designated  in  the  diagram,  and 
are  called  the  Places,  Points^  or  Degrees  of  the 
scale.  Any  two  degrees  are,  by  relative  posi- 
tion, called  Proximate,  when  they  are  next  to 
each  other ;  and  Remote,  when  they  include 
more  than  proximate  degrees  between  them. 

The  distance  between  any  two  points  in  the 
scale,  whether  proximate  or  remote,  is  called  an 
Interval.  A  musical  interval  is  defined  to  be  a 
'quantity  of  a  certain  kind,  terminated  by  a 
graver  and  an  acuter  sound.'  But  for  the  pur- 
poses of  speech,  it  is  necessary  to  regard  that 
quantity  as  either  continuous  sound,  or  imagi- 
nary space;  and  to  consider  the  effect  of  the 
transit  of  the  voice  from  one  degree  of  the  scale 
to  another,  as  constituting  an  interval,  whether 

Crete  and  discrete,  as  here  applied,  are  borrowed  from  mathematics ;  in  which 
science  they  designate  the  two  great  generic  divisions  of  quantity.  Thus  Mac- 
nitude  is  the  concrete  quantify  ;  for  the  lines,  surfaces,  and  solids  which  con- 
stitute it,  have  their  respective  parts,  so  to  speak,  concreted  or  united  immediately 
with  each  other  :  — whereas  Number  is  the  discrete  quantity;  since  the  distinct 
succession  of  its  constituent  units  is  altogether  different  from  any  kind  of 
continuity. 

The  most  familiar  illustration  of  these  terms,  as  applied  to  the  two  kinds  of 
quantity  in  musical  sound,  is  furnished  by  the  form  of  a  ladder,  the  side  rails 
representing  the  concrete,  and  the  rounds  the  discrete. 


IJ 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  55 

the  voice  is  concretely  heard,  or  discretely  omitted  between 
them.  The  intervals  in  their  proximate  order,  are  measured  as 
follows:* 

The  interval,  or  the  quantity  of  concrete  voice  either  heard,  or 
omitted,  between  the  first  and  the  second  places,  as  numbered 
in  the  diagram,  is  called  a  Tone.'l 

That  between  the  second  and  third  is  likewise  a  to7ie. 

That  between  the  third  and  fourth,  which  appears  in  the  dia- 
gram, as  but  half  the  space  of  a  tone,  is  called  a  Semitone. 

The  interval  between  the  fourth  and  fifth,  fifth  and  sixth, 
sixth  and  seventh,  is  each  a  tone,  and  lastly,  that  between  the 
seventh  and  the  eighth,  or  first  of  the  next  series,  a  semitone. 

The  intervals  between  the  degrees  of  the  scale,  whether 
proximate  or  remote,  are  designated  numerically ;  the  extreme 
degrees  being  inclusively  counted.  Thus,  from  the  second  to  the 
third,  or  from  the  sixth  to  the  seventh,  is  the  interval  of  a 
second ;  and  from  the  second  to  the  sixth,  or  from  the  fourth  to 
the  eisrhth,  is  the  interval  of  a  fifth.  And  so  of  the  rest :  the 
numerical  name  of  any  interval  being  the  same,  whether  taken 
in  an  upward  or  in  a  downward  direction. 

Though  the  several  discrete  sounds  of  the  scale  are  named 
according  to  their  ordinal  number,  yet  the  first,  relatively  to  its 
rising  series,  is  generally  called  the  Key-note.  Consequently, 
in  two  or  more  series  of  scales,  the  eighth  sound,  called  the 
Octave^  of  the  preceding,  is  always  the  key-note  of  the  succeed- 

*  The  well  iuformed  reader  should  regard  this  general  view  of  the  scale,  and 
the  manner  of  its  illustration,  with  a  thoughtfulness  of  my  design  I  omit  the 
theoretic  distinction  of  greater  and  lesser  tone,  of  diatonic  and  chromatic  semi- 
tone, and  of  the  major  and  minor  scale,  together  with  other  particulars,  both 
mclodial  and  harmonic,  with  an  intention  to  notice  only  what  is  preparatory  to 
the  description  of  speech. 

I  The  reader  must  bear  in  mind,  that  the  word  tone  in  this  essay,  designates 
—  only  a  certain  interval  of  pitch  ;  since  common  language  applies  it  alike  to 
pitch,  quality,  force  and  time,  in  the  phrases  'high  and  low  tones  of  the  voice,' 
'mellow,  and  silver  tones,'  'an  emphatic  or  loud  tone,'  and  a  'deliberate  tone.' 
Even  music,  with  all  its  scientific  precision,  is  not  free  from  slight  confusion  on 
this  point.     For  while  it  employs  the  Avord  tone,  for  that  interval   to  which  we 


56  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

ing  scale :  as  in  the  vertical  diagram,  the  sound  at  tlie  eighth 
place,  is  the  octave  of  the  first  series,  and  the  key-note  of  the 
second. 

The  succession  of  the  seven  sounds  of  any  one  series,  to 
■which  the  octave  is  usually  added,  is  called  the  Natural  or 
Diatonic  Scale.  It  consists  of  five  tones  and  two  semitones ; 
the  latter  being  the  intervals  between  its  third  and  fourth,  and  its 
seventh  and  eighth  degrees.  The  scale  then  contains  these 
several  kinds  of  intervals, —  a  semitone;  a  second,  or  whole 
tone  ;  a  third ;  fourth ;  fifth ;  sixth  ;  seventh ;  and  octave. 

By  the  diagram,  the  interval  between  the  second  and  fourth 
degrees  is  numerically  a  third,  yet  contains  but  one  tone  and  a 
semitone  :  whereas,  that  between  the  first  and  third  degrees,  still 
numerically  the  interval  of  a  third,  contains  two  whole  tones. 
From  this  difference  in  constituency,  and  extent,  the  former  is 
called  a  31inor  Thircly  and  the  latter  a  3Iajor  Third.  But  since 
the  minor  third  is  never  used  in  correct  speech,  the  term  Third 
will,  in  this  work,  except  the  minor  is  specified,  always  refer  to 
the  major  interval. 

Having  thus  far,  described  the  construction  of  the  Musical 
Scale,  I  here  advise  the  reader,  who  may  not  be  a  musician,  and 
who  may  never  have  heard  of  the  nature  of  that  scale,  to  ask, 
from  some  qualified  master,  an  audible  example  of  its  upward 
and  downward  progression,  and  of  its  several  intervals.  The 
varied  practical  exercises  on  the  scale  are,  in  the  language  of 
vocal  science,  called  Solfaing  and  Solmization.  Let  him  stu- 
diously imitate  this  exemplification,  and  commit  it  to  memory. 
If  destitute  of  what  is  called  a  musical  ear,  let  him  not  think 
himself  unable  to  discriminate  those  intervals,  which  he  has 
now  learned  to  be  a  part  of  music.     In  communities  where  the 

restrict  its  use,  it  at  the  same  time,  designates  quality,  in  the  terms,—  *  tone  of 
the  flute'  and  of  other  instruments,  and  the  '  pure  tone'  of  the  vocalist.  The 
french  word  timbre,  corresponding  to  our  quality,  and  sometimes  applied  to  the 
voice,  would,  in  common  English  pronunciation,  soon  get  into  down-right  ship 
—  timber.  Let  us  not  be  'frightened  at  the  sound  ourselves  have  made';  but 
call  quality  by  the  plain  English  term  Quality ;  the  timid  recollecting,  it  comes 
Irom  a  word  used  by  Cicero  and  Csesar. 


i 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 


67 


cultivation  of  this  art  is  general,  these  things  are  all  learned  by 
thousands,  who,  with  their  natural  ear,  would  never  have  caught 
up  even  a  fragment  of  the  commonest  tune.  And  surelj  there  is 
no  one,  into  whose  hands  this  book  will  ever  fall,  who  can  possibly 
avoid  perceiving  the  several  differences  of  meaning  or  expres- 
sion, when  he  is  addressed  in  the  language  of  narrative,  surprise, 
complaint,  authority,  or  interrogation.  Now  these  various  expres- 
sive eifects  in  speech,  are  perceptible  to  him,  and  accurately  so, 
only  because  they  are  concrete  or  discrete  movements  of  the  voice 
through  certain  appropriate  intervals  of  the  scale.  His  ear  there- 
fore does  really  recognize  these  movements, —  these  intervals  of 
the  speaking  scale.  I  only  give  to  his  understanding  and  his 
tongue,  their  musical  method  and  names. 

When  an  instructor  cannot  be  met  with,  the  use  of  a  well- 
tuned  Piano-Forte  may  assist  those  who  have  no  acquaintance 
with  the  scale.  On  the  key-board  of  this  instrument  there  is  a 
front  row  of  white  keys,  as  they  are  called,  and  a  rear  row  of 
black  ones.  A  representation  of  their  forms  and  positions,  is 
given  in  the  following  diagram ;  where  a  portion  of  the  Great 
Scale,  or  as  its  whole  extent  is  called, —  the  Compass  of  the 
instrument  is  shown;  and  the  white  keys  numbered  above  in 
continuation,  as  far  as  twenty-one  ;  and  below  in  repeated  septen- 
ary series. 


1   2   3  4   5   6   7  8   9   10 11*  12  15  14 15   16  17  IS   19  20   21 


rmMn 


12     345      6    7.12345      07.123     4557 


Any  one  of  the  septenary  series  of  Avhite  keys,  of  which  there 
are  three  in  the  diagram,  when  struck  successively  ascending  from 
left  to  right,  gives  the  seven  diserete  rising  sounds  of  the  diatonic 
scale.  The  black  keys,  are  set  between  the  white  ones,  for  the 
purpose  of  dividing  the  whole  tones  into  semitones.  Hence,  the 
black  keys  are  wanting  at  the  semitonic  intervals  of  the  scale, 
5 


58  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

where  their  purpose  cannot  apply.     This  omission  visibly  sepa- 
rates the  black  keys  alternately  into  pairs  and  triplets. 

With  the  foregoing  explanation,  the  reader  can  have  no 
difficulty  in  finding  a  diatonic  scries  on  the  white  keys  of  a 
Piano-Forte,  since  the  key-note  or  beginning  of  the  series  always 
lies  next  below  the  pah'  of  black  keys.  Let  him  then,  on  that 
series  which  suits  the  pitch  of  his  speaking  voice,  severally  utter 
the  vowels,  and  some  of  their  syllabic  combinations,  in  unison 
with  the  instrumental  sounds,  both  in  the  proximate  order  of  a 
tone,  and  in  the  wider  transitions  of  the  other  intervals  of  the 
scale,  till  the  whole  is  familiar  to  his  ear,  and  at  the  call  of 
memory.  It  is  true,  the  Piano-Forte  can  show  him  only  the 
discrete  movements  of  pitch  ;  but  when  these  are  under  command, 
the  concrete  can  readily  be  measured  by  them.  But  to  proceed 
with  our  explanation. 

The  prolonged  sound  at  any  of  the  places  of  the  discrete 
scale,  is  called  a  Kote.  This  term  note,  signifies  the  continua- 
tion of  sound  on  one  unvarying  line  of  pitch,  and  is  to  be 
carefully  distinguished  from  that  of  Tone,  which  as  before 
stated,  always  means  a  certain  interval  of  pitch :  and  in  this 
essay,  is  applied,  either  to  the  concrete  transit  of  the  voice 
between  any  two  proximate  degrees,  except  those  bounding  a 
semitone,  or  to  the  amount  of  space  between  such  degrees,  when 
the  transit  is  discrete. 

As  the  term  tone  is  thus  used  under  two  conditions  of  pitch, 
so  are  the  terms  of  other  intervals,  included  between  remote 
degrees :  for  the  voice  may  move  concretely  through  these 
intervals,  or  notes  may  be  made  at  these  degrees,  with  the 
omission  of  the  concrete.  Let  us  call  the  former  of  these  con- 
ditions, Concrete  Intervals,  and  the  latter.  Discrete  Intervals : 
one  being,  figuratively,  a  rising  or  falling  stream  of  voice,  the 
other  a  voiceless  space. 

The  first,  third  and  fifth  notes  of  the  diatonic  scale,  to  which 
the  octave,  as  a  sort  of  according  repetition  of  the  first,  is  usually 
added,  diiFer  from  the  rest,  in  being  more  agreeable  to  the  ear 
when  heard  in  combination,  and  in  immediate  succession.  The 
degrees,  in  this  order,  are  also  more  readily  hit  by  an  inexpe- 
rienced voice,  in  an  endeavor  to  execute  the  several  discrete 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  59 

intervals  of  the  scale :  and  that  simple  instrument  the  Jews- 
harp,  and  some  species  of  the  Horn  more  readily  yield  these  suc- 
cessive notes  under  the  faltering  attempts  of  a  learner.  When 
therefore  the  pupil  takes  his  lesson  on  the  scale,  let  him  familiar- 
ize his  ear  to  the  succession  of  the  first,  third,  fifth  and  octave  ; 
omitting  the  intermediate  degrees.  Frequent  reference  will  be 
made  hereafter,  to  his  perceptions  on  this  point. 

Below,  is  a  representation  of  the  manner  in  which  musicians 
set  their  symbols  for  the  diatonic  sounds,  on  that  linear  table 
called  the  Staff.  This  staflf  consists  of  five  horizontal  and 
parallel  lines,  having  four  spaces  between  them.  Each  space 
and  line  represents  a  degree  of  the  scale  :  so  that  from  space  to 
line,  and  line  to  space,  when  they  adjoin,  is  a  second :  and  these 
degrees  are  called  conjoint  or  proximate.  When  the  discrete 
movement  is  over  a  wider  interval  than  a  second,  it  is  called  a 
Skip ;  and  the  degrees  are  said  to  be  Remote.  The  succession 
of  the  scale  is  here  marked  by  disks,  rising  from  the  lowest  line 
to  the  highest  space  of  the  staff;  the  intervals  of  the  semitones 
being  designated  by  a  brace. 


s: 


I  have  thus  endeavored  to  describe  the  Concrete  movement 
of  sound ;  and  its  Discrete  progression  through  the  diatonic  scale. 
But  in  order  to  accommodate  the  scale  of  instruments  with  fixed 
keys,  to  the  purposes  of  musical  execution,  it  is  necessary  to 
subdivide  the  whole  tones.  The  purpose  and  manner  of  the 
subdivision  may  be  thus  described.* 

*  As  the  reader  has  learned  above,  the  nature  of  the  semitone,  it  is  not  essen- 
tial that  he  should  strictly  attend  to  the  detailed  explanation,  in  the  two  follow- 
ing paragraphs :  since  most  of  it  is  not  applicable  to  speech.  I  say  this,  only 
in  reference  to  his  finding  it  difficult.  In  letting  him  know,  there  is  a  succes- 
Bion  of  degrees,  called  the  Semitonic  Scale,  I  describe  the  manner  of  its  con- 
struction :  for  with  a  knowledge  of  this,  his  ideas  of  the  relations  between  Music 
and  speech  will  be  more  varied  and  precise.  Let  him  then  understand  it,  if  not 
too  troublesome:  and  by  all  means,  let  him  read  the  last  two  sentences  of  the 
second  paragraph. 


60  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

In  any  series  of  seven  notes,  as  the  first  marked  in  the  pre- 
ceding vertical  diagram  of  the  scale,  and  in  that  of  the  key- 
board, let  us  assume  the  Fifth,  as  the  first  or  key-note  of  a  new 
series.  This,  with  its  octave,  will  extend  to  the  place  numbered 
twelve.  Six  of  its  places  in  their  rising  order,  from  five  to  ten, 
will  have  right  positions ;  and  thus  far  the  intervals  of  tone  and 
semitone  Avill  exhibit  the  proper  successions  of  the  diatonic  scale. 
But  the  interval  between  the  tenth  and  eleventh  is  a  semi- 
tone, and  that  between  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  a  tone  :  whereas, 
by  the  rule  for  constructing  the  scale,  the  order  should  be  reversed. 
For  the  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth,  marked  in  the  diagrams, 
are  respectively  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  of  the  new  series 
assumed  from  the  fifth.  If  then  the  interval  from  eleven  to 
twelve  be  subdivided  into  two  semitones,  as  shown  by  a  cross  in 
the  vertical  diagram,  and  by  a  star  in  that  of  the  key-board, 
and  if  the  transit  be  made  from  the  tenth  place,  to  this  point  of 
division,  two  semitones,  making  thus  one  whole  tone,  will  be 
passed  over;  the  interval  from  this  point  of  division  to  the 
twelfth  will  be  a  semitone,  and  thus  the  constituent  intervals  of 
the  diatonic  scale  in  this  second  series,  will  be  obtained. 

Now,  in  order  to  divide  in  this  way,  all  the  whole  tones,  let 
us  observe,  that  rising  a  fifth  on  the  previous  series,  would  soon 
carry  us  beyond  the  limit  of  our  diagrams.  And  let  us  further 
observe,  that  the  fifth  above  any  key-note,  holds  the  same  rela- 
tive position  in  a  scale,  as  the  fourth  below  it.  If  then,  for  a 
key-note  to  a  third  series,  we  take  the  fifth  above  the  key-note 
of  the  second  series,  or  the  fourth  below  it, —  which  are  repre- 
sented respectively  by  the  ninth  and  the  second  of  the  diagrams, 
and  which  are  considered  the  same,  because  they  have  the  like 
positions  of  second  in  the  two  series  of  the  key-board, —  a  simi- 
lar subdivision  of  the  whole  tone,  between  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth,  will  be  necessary,  with  the  use  of  the  former  subdivi- 
sion, to  construct  the  scale.  And  thus  progressively,  by  taking 
the  fifth  of  the  last  series,  or  the  fourth  below  it,  and  using  the 
previous  subdivisions,  every  place  of  the  scale  may  become  the 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  61 

first  of  a  series ;  and  every  whole  tone  may  thereby  be  divided, 
as  shown  by  the  black  keys  in  the  diagram  of  the  key-board. 
This  division  produces  a  series  of  semitones.  When  therefore 
the  progression  is  made  by  them,  the  order  of  degrees  is  called 
the  Semitonic,  or  more  commonly  the  Chromatic  Scale. 

But  it  is  necessary  for  the  future  history  of  speech,  that  the 
succession  of  discrete  sounds  should  be  exhibited  under  still  more 
reduced  divisions.  These  consist  in  a  discrete  transition  from 
place  to  place,  over  intervals  much  smaller  than  a  semitone ; 
each  point  being  as  it  were,  rapidly  touched  by  a  short  and 
abrupt  emission  of  voice.  This  description  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  manner  of  that  noise  in  the  throat  called  gurgling ;  and 
by  the  neighing  of  a  horse.  The  analogy  here  regards  princi- 
pally the  momentary  duration,  frequency,  and  abruptness  of 
sound ;  for  the  gurgling  is  generally  made  by  a  quick  iteration 
on  one  unvarying  line  of  pitch.  But  in  the  scale  now  under 
consideration,  each  successive  pulse  of  sound  is  taken  at  a 
Minute  Discrete-interval  alove  the  last,  till  the  series  reaches 
the  octave.  We  cannot  tell  the  precise  extent  of  this  minute 
interval,  nor  the  number  of  pulses  in  given  portions  of  the  scale; 
since  this  function  is  executed  in  a  manner,  and  with  a  rapidity 
which  prevent  discrimination.  Nor  is  this  point  material  now. 
My  purpose  requires  it  to  be  known  that  the  voice  does  rise  and 
fall,  with  short  and  abrupt  iterations,  through  the  whole  extent 
of  pitch,  by  steps,  less  than  a  semitone.  Whether  the  discrete 
space  is  that  fractional  part  of  a  tone  called  a  comma,  or  some 
division  or  multiple  of  it,  we  leave  to  be  determined  among 
theorists,  by  other  means  than  that  of  the  ear  alone.  Let  us 
then  call  this  species  of  movement,  the  Tremulous  Scale. 

We  have  thus,  four  diiferent  kinds  of  progression  in  pitch ;  and 
though  in  speaking  of  the  concrete,  its  slide  was  not  called  a 
scale,  since  its  unbroken  line  has  no  analogy  with  the  interrupted 
steps  of  a  discrete  succession ;  yet  with  a  full  understanding  of 
its  nature,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  its  being  so  called. 

There  are  then  Four  scales  of  pitch.  The  Concrete  ;  in  which, 
from  the  outset  to  the  termination  of  the  voice,  either  in  rising 


62  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

or  falling,  there  is  no  appreciable   interval,  or  interruption  of 
continuity. 

The  Diatonic  ;  wherein  the  discrete  transitions  are  principally 
by  whole  tones. 

The  Chromatic ;  consisting  of  a  discrete  succession  of  semi- 
tones :  and, 

The  Tremulous  ;  which  with  its  momentary  impulses,  separated 
from  each  other  by  very  minute  intervals,  has  never,  as  far  as 
I  know,  been  employed  on  musical  instruments,  in  an  upward 
and  a  downward  progression ;  the  tremolo  being  a  tremor  on  a 
straight  line  of  pitch ;  and  the  Trill  or  Shake  being,  as  will  be 
shown  hereafter,  a  totally  distinct  function. 

The  extent  through  Avhich  the  voice  is  used  in  any  of  these 
four  scales,  within  the  limits  of  distinct  articulation,  is  called 
the  Compass  of  Speech. 

For  the  purpose  of  explanation,  the  scales  have  been  repre- 
sented separately,  though  in  the  practice  of  the  voice  they  are 
variously  united:  since  speech  makes  use  of  them  all.  The 
concrete  is  always  found :  and  we  shall  hereafter  learn  in  what 
manner  the  diatonic,  chromatic,  and  tremulous  scales  are  joined 
with  it. 

The  term  Melody  is,  in  music,  applied  to  a  regulated  vocal  or 
intsrumental  use  of  the  diatonic  and  chromatic  scales.  The  full 
meaning  of  the  term  embraces  the  further  relations  of  time, 
rythmus,  and  pause :  but  I  hero  speak  of  pitch  alone.  That 
effect  in  music  called  melody,  is  produced  by  the  use  of  the 
seven  notes  of  the  scale,  in  any  agreeable  order  of  their  possible 
.permutations,  either  in  a  proximate  or  skipping  progression. 
We  shall  find  hereafter,  that  the  Melody  of  Speech  is  founded 
on  a  like  principle  of  varied  intervals :  while  it  has  peculiarities, 
arising  from  its  concrete  and  tremulous  movements,  and  from 
its  not  being  effected  by  the  doctrine  of  what  in  music  is  called 
Key. 

The  term  Key  is  applied  to  each  of  the  several  series  of  the 
diatonic  scale,  on  musical  instruments.  And  as  it  appears  by 
the  diagram  of  the  key-board,  that  the  Semitonic  divisions  of 
the  whole  tones  of  the  scale  make  twelve  places,  from  each  of 
which  a  diatonic  succession  may  be  arranged,  so  the  scale  of 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLAN2VTIONS.  63 

the  piano-forte  admits  of  twelve  diflferent  keys.  The  first  note 
of  the  succession  is  called  as  we  said  formerly,  the  key-note. 
The  relationship  of  this,  to  the  other. notes  of  the  scale  is  3uch, 
that  a  melody  will  appear  unfinished,  if  its  last  sound  be  not 
the  key-note  of  the  scale,  or  the  octave  to  it,  which  is  its 
nearest  concord. 

It  is  a  condition  in  music,  that  a  melody  formed  of  the  varied 
permutations  of  the  notes  of  any  one  key,  shall  not  employ  the 
constituent  notes  of  another.  Thus  in  the  vertical  diagram, 
there  is  the  first  series,  with  its  key-note  at  number  one ;  and  a 
second  with  its  key-note  at  five.  But  to  form  the  second,  we 
found  it  necessary  to  divide  the  tone  between  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  points,  in  order  to  obtain  the  final  semitone  of  the 
diatonic  scale :  and  it  appears  that  all  the  notes  are  common  to 
the  two  series,  except  the  seventh  of  the  second,  marked  eleven 
in  the  diagram.  Now  a  melody  or  tune  begun  on  the  first  series, 
cannot  employ  that  eleventh,  and  be  agreeable  to  the  ear,  but 
with  an  express  design  to  leave  the  first  series,  and  afterwards 
to  carry  on  the  tune  altogether  by  the  notes  of  the  second.  This 
transition  from  one  series  to  another  is  called  3Iodidatio7i,  or 
Changing  the  key.  It  is  employed  in  vocal  and  instrumental 
music,  but  is  not  applicable  to  speech. 

The  term  Intonation  signifies  the  act  of  performing  the 
movements  of  pitch  through  any  interval  of  the  several  scales, 
whether  in  speech,  in  song,  or  in  instrumental  execution.  It 
therefore  regards  merely  the  changes  of  sound  between  acute- 
ness  and  gravity.  Intonation  is  said  to  be  correct  or  true,  when 
the  discrete  steps,  or  concrete  slides  over  the  intended  interval 
are  made  with  exactness.  Deviation  from  this  precision  is 
called  singing,  or  playing,  or  as  it  may  be  hereafter,  Speaking 
false.* 

*  Instead  of  the  term  Intonation,  which  embraces  in  music,  the  doctrine  of 
intervals,  and  their  exact  execution ;  the  words  Inflection  and  Modulation  have 
been  used  by  writers,  to  express  only  a  general  aud  obscure  perception  of  some 
variation  of  pitch,  in  the  speaking  voice.  So  entirely  have  they  seemed  to  over- 
look the  analogy  between  the  scale  of  music  and  of  speech,  that  the  term  Intona- 
tion, which  has  been  used  in  the  former  art,  at  least  a  century,  to  denote  the 
precise  recognition  of  intervals,  is  not,  with  this  meaning,  to  be  found,  as  far  as 


64  DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS. 

The  term  Cadence  in  music,  means  —  the  consummation  of 
the  desire  for  a  full  close  in  the  melody,  by  the  resting  of  its 
last  seund  in  the  key-note.  It  will  be  shown  hereafter,  that  the 
cadence  or  close  of  sjjeech  is  effected  in  a  different  manner. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  prepare  the  reader  for  all  that 
relates  to  the  science  and  nomenclature  of  music,  in  the  follow- 
ing description  of  speech.  When  a  full  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  uses  of  the  voice  will  have  become  familiar,  through  general 
instruction  and  practice,  the  Art  of  Speaking  will  seem  to  offer 
less  difficulty,  by  having  an  acknowledged  system  and  nomencla- 
ture of  its  own.  Now,  we  are  obliged  to  study  another  art,  in 
order  to  make  an  Art  of  it. 

In  whatever  way  a  pupil  may  learn,  or  be  taught  to  recognize 
and  to  execute  the  intervals  of  the  scale,  let  me  here  again  call 
his  attention  to  the  necessity  of  making  himself  familiar  with 
the  perception  of  the  concrete  and  discrete  movement,  not  only  as 
formed  on  simple  vowel  sounds,  but  on  syllables,  the  common 
materials  of  intonation  in  speech.  Let  the  pupil  then,  on  any 
syllable  capable  of  prolongation,  rise  concretely,  from  the  first 
degree  of  the  scale  to  the  octave ;  and  from  this  immediately 
return  concretely  to  the  first  degree,  while  the  effect  of  the 
extent  of  the  rising  octave  remains  upon  the  ear.  In  like  man- 
ner, let  him  ascend  and  descend  through  the  concrete  fifth, 
third,  second,  and  semitone. 

For  acquiring  familiarity  with  the  discrete  intervals,  as  used 
in  speech,  the  intonation  should  be  performed  by  means  of  two 
syllables.  Thus,  taking  the  word  gaily,  let  the  pupil  begin  at 
the  first  degree  of  the  scale,  with  gai,  and  by  a  skip,  strike  the 
octave  with  ly :  and  then,  in  immediate  return,  while  memory 
of  the  interval  serves  him,  take  gai  at  the  octave,  and  descend 
to  the  first,  on  ly.  In  like  manner,  let  the  voice  be  exercised 
on  the  discrete  fifth,  third,  second,  and  semitone. 

Facility  in  executing  the  chromatic  movement  of  speech,  is  to 

I  can  learn,  in  any  of  the  numberless  boots  on  elocution,  published  ■within  this 
period.  I  nsed  not  say,  how  often,  the  description  of  speech,  founded  on  the 
identity  of  its  intervals  vrith  those  of  music,  will  hereafter  require  the  use  of 
this  term. 


DIVISIONS  AND  EXPLANATIONS.  65 

be  attained,  bj  frequently  repeating  tlie  interjection  ali^  with  a 
plaintive  sentiment,  both  ascending  and  descending,  between 
the  seventh  and  eighth  degrees  of  the  diatonic  scale. 

The  pupil  will  acquire  a  ready  command  over  the  tremulous 
intonation,  by  practising  the  characteristic  tremor  of  this  scale, 
through  the  semitone  with  a  plaintive  sentiment,  and  with  laugh- 
ter, or  sentiments  of  exultation,  through  the  other  intervals. 

By  frequent  practice  of  these  several  intonations  on  single 
syllables,  the  voice  will  be  prepared  for  the  precise  use  of  inter- 
vals, in  the  syllabic  successions  of  speech. 

The  preceding  explanations  have  been  extended  rather  beyond 
what  is  absolutely  necessary  for  comprehending  the  proper 
science  of  Analytic  Elocution,  now  to  be  first  set  forth.  Thus 
the  nature  of  Key  and  Modulation  in  music,  has  been  described, 
with  some  care,  although  speech  is  not  constructed  upon  the 
principles  of  either.  It  may  not  however,  be  uninteresting  to 
some  inquirers  to  know  wherein  the  differences  of  the  cases 
consist. 

The  tjerm  Elocution  is  applied  throughout  this  w^ork  to  signify  "/ 
the  use  of  the  voice,  for  the  representation  of  thought  and  pas- 
sion, under  every  form  of  correct  Reading  and  Speech.  These 
two  last  terms  have  a  plain,  restricted,  and  precise  meaning : 
while  Elocution  as  a  genus  includes  them  both.  The  terms 
Recitation,  Delivery,  and  Declamation,  as  well  as  divisions  of 
the  art,  designating  public  Places,  and  Professions,  are  not  here 
technically,  if  at  all,  used  in  reference  to  vocal  character. 
Styles  of  elocution  may  differ  in  manner,  within  the  rule  for 
justly  denoting  sentiment  and  thought ;  and  this  rule  should  direct 
the  style,  whether  of  the  Advocate,  the  Witness,  or  the  Judge ; 
of  the  Pulpit  or  the  Senate  ;  of  the  speech  of  the  Stump-orator, 
or  the  harangue  of  the  General.  If  there  had  been  a  more 
abundant  and  precise  knowledge,  of  Jiow  language  should  be 
spoken,  there  would  have  been  much  less  said  of  the  Person  and 
the  Place. 

I  feel  how  perplexing  it  is,  I  was  about  to  say,  it  is  impossible, 
to  render  the  separated  parts  of  a  science,  so  well  divided  in 
method  yet  so  closely  related  in  detail,  as  that  of  music,  clearly 


66  THE  RADICAL  AND 

intelligible.  If  what  lias  been  said,  will  enable  the  reader  to 
understand  the  system  and  particulars  of  the  Four  Scales,  and 
to  execute  them,  he  will  not  have  much  difficulty  in  pursuing 
our  further  history  of  a  new  and  beautiful  Science  of  the 
Human  Voice. 


SECTION  11. 

Of  the  Radical  and  VanisJting  movement  of  the  voice,  and  its 
different  forms  in  Speech,  Song,  and  Recitative. 

We  have  been  willing  to  believe,  on  faith  alone,  that  Nature 
is  wise  in  the  contrivance  of  speech.  Let  us  now  show  by  our 
works  of  analysis,  in  what  manner,  and  with  what  a  perfection 
of  economy  that  cannot  surpass  itself,  she  manages  the  simple 
constituents  of  the  voice,  in  the  production  of  their  unbounded 
combinations.* 

*  As  I  profess,  in  this  work,  to  draw  the  history  of  the  human  voice,  alto- 
gether from  observation  by  the  ear,  and  experiment  with  the  tongue,  it  will  be 
convenient,  and  even  necessary, —  from  the  constant  reference  to  the  combined 
agencies  that  make  up  the  system  of  speech, —  to  have  some  brief  term  to 
designate  what  we  imagine  to  be  the  directive  principle,  or  general  agent  over 
these  subordinate  and  perceptible  agencies.  I  have  therefore,  in  the  text, 
adopted  an  abstract  sign,  for  all  these  agencies,  and  their  effects,  —  in  the  word 
Nature  ;  a  word  often  taken  in  error,  and  in  vain,  but  not  yet  obsolete.  This 
Term,  this  Nature,  I  use  everywhere, —  and  always  with  the  same  meaning 
when  personified, —  as  the  representative  of  an  all-sufEcient,  and  ever-present 
system  of  causes :  which  in  the  broad  wisdom  of  its  ordination,  and  universal 
consistency  of  its  effects,  is  the  bright  and  unchanging  example  of  truth,  and 
right,  and  goodness,  and  beauty ;  and  worthy  of  unceasing  study  and  imita- 
tion, for  beginning,  without  delusive  hopes,  the  intellectual,  the  political,  the 
moral,  and  resthetic  refinement  of  man. 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT. 


67 


When  the  letter  a,  as  heard  in  the  word  day^  is  pronounced 
simply  as  an  alphabetic  element,  without  intensity  or  emotion,  and 
•  as  if  it  were  a  continuation,  not  a  close  of  utterance,  two  sounds 
are  heard  continuously  successive.  The  first  has  the  nominal 
sound  of  this  letter,  and  issues  with  a  certain  degree  of  fulness. 
The  last  is  the  element  e,  as  heard  in  eve,  gradually  diminish- 
ing to  an  attenuated  close.  During  the  pronunciation,  the 
voice  rises  by  the  concrete  movement  through  the  interval  of  a 
tone  or  second ;  the  beginning  of  a  and  the  termination  of  c, 
being  severally  the  inferior  and  superior  extremes  of  that  tone. 
The  nature  of  this  concrete  rise  may  be  thus  visibly  represented. 


But  as  a  curvature  of  lines  seems  to  me,  to  afford  a  more  grace- 
ful analogy  to  the  peculiar  effect  of  this  vocal  concrete,  it  will 
throughout  this  work  be  represented  thus : 


As  the  above  description  may  not  —  from  the  limited  extent 
of  the  concrete,  its  delicate  structure,  and  momentary  duration, 
—  be  at  once  recognized,  I  shall  endeavor  to  throw  some  par- 
ticular light  of  explanation  upon  it. 

That  the  sound  denoted  by  the  letter  a,  when  thus  uttered 
concretely,  has  the  dipthongal  character,  will  be  obvious  on 
deliberately  drawing  out  this  single  element,  as  a  question  put 
with  great  surprise.  For  in  this  case,  its  commencement  is  what 
I  have  called  the  nominal  a,  and  its  termination  in  e,  at  a  high 
pitch  is  no  less  distinguishable. 


68  THE  RADICAL  AND 

By  the  same  use  of  interrogation,  the  fulness  or  greater 
volume  of  sound  upon  a,  and  the  diminisTiing  close  in  e,  will  be 
obvious  to  an  attentive  ear.  Nor  is  it  improbable  that  the 
feebleness  of  this  last  constituent  of  a,  in  ordinary  pronuncia- 
tion, is  at  least  one  cause  why  the  dipthongal  structure  of  this 
element,  has  never,  as  far  as  I  know,  been  perceived,  or  des- 
scribed. 

Now,  that  a,  uttered  simply  as  the  head  of  the  alphabet, 
without  any  striking  expression,  and  as  a  continuation,  not  a 
close,  of  speech,  does  rise  through  the  concrete  interval  of  a 
tone,  will  be  manifest  to  the  reader,  by  his  ability  to  intonate 
the  diatonic  scale.  For  let  him  ascend  discretely,  by  the  alter- 
nate use  of  a  and  e,  prolonging  each  as  a  note,  and  making  a 
slight  pause  between  them.  This  will  render  him  familiar  with 
the  relationship  of  the  two  elements,  when  heard  on  the  extremes 
of  a  tone  :  as  illustrated  by  the  following  diagram ;  where  from 


A e  E- 


line  to  line,  is  one  degree,  or  a  tone  of  the  scale ;  where  the 
oval  figure,  with  its  attenuated  rising  termination,  represents 
the  prolonged  note,  with  its  faint  and  rapid  concrete  issue ; 
and  where  the  size  of  the  subscribed  letters  represents  the  pro- 
portional duration  and  volume  of  voice,  in  the  different  parts 
of  each  impulse  of  pronunciation. 

Then  let  him  ascend  the  scale,  by  a  kind  of  union  of  the 
concrete  and  discrete  progressions ;  that  is,  by  beginning  with  a 
slightly  prolonged,  and  proceeding  to  e,  in  the  second  place, 
without  breaking  the  continuity  of  sound ;  and  thence  after 
slightly  prolonging  e,  passing  concretely  to  a,  in  the  third 
place  ;  as  illustrated  by  the  following  diagram ;  where  full  notes 
are  connected  by  slender  concretes.  This  practice  will  make 
him  familiar  with  the  effects  of  a  concrete  rise  through  a  tone, 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT. 


t)9 


•when  the  upper  extreme  is  rendered  remarkable,  by  the  stress 
and  prolongation  it  receives  at  the  second  place  of  the  scale. 


.E. 


-A 


Supposing  the  interval  of  a  tone  to  be  distinguishable,  when 
thus  uttered  vfith.  a  full  volume  of  sound  on  the  two  extremes 
a  and  e,  or  with  what  may  be  called  a  double  stress ;  it  may  be 
proved,  in  the  following  manner,  that  the  simple  utterance  of  a 
in  dai/,  passes  through  the  same  interval.  Let  the  a  and  e  be 
repeatedly  pronounced  with  this  double  stress,  united  by  the 
weaker  concrete,  till  the  effect  of  the  interval,  is  for  the  moment, 
impressed  upon  the  ear.  Then  let  the  stress  on  e  be  gradually 
diminished  in  the  repetition :  as  illustrated  by  the  series  of 
symbols  in  the  following  diagram.  The  audible  effect  of  the  last 
of  the  series,  even  with  a  total  cessation  of  the  upper  stress,  will 


A E    A— e    A— e       A-e     A-e      A-e     A- 


as  far  as  regards  intonation,  so  resemble,  yet  faintly,  the  effect 
of  the  double  stress,  that  the  cases  will  be  admitted  as  identical. 
Since  then  the  tone  is  plainly  cognizable  as  the  first  interval  of 
the  scale,  when  both  extremes  receive  the  stress,  so  in  return- 
ing to  the  simple  pronunciation  of  a,  by  gradually  diminish- 
ing the  stress  at  its  upper  extremity,  the  perception  of  this 
interval  will  be  kept  up  through  the  progress  of  the  change. 


70 


THE  RADICAL  AND 


If  there  should  at  any  time  be  a  doubt,  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
concrete  interval,  let  stress  be  applied  at  its  summit.  When  the 
interval  is  a  tone,  the  two  sounds  will  form  the  commencement 
of  the  diatonic  scale :  for  with  a  little  experience,  the  course  of 
this  scale  can  always  be  recognized,  in  the  execution  of  its  first 
and  second  degrees. 

The  dipthongal  sound  of  a  does  then  in  this  case,  pass  through 
the  concrete  interval  of  a  tone ;  the  movement  being  divided 
between  the  sounds  of  a  and  e,  the  first  gliding  into  the  last. 
But  as  the  question  here  refers  to  the  extent  of  the  interval  tra- 
versed, and  to  its  upward  direction,  as  well  as  to  its  concrete 
progress,  it  is  necessary  to  guard  against  utterance  of  the  literal 
element,  with  any  emotion ;  for  if  it  be  with  plaintiveness,  sur- 
prise, interrogation,  or  other  impressive  sentiments,  or  as  the 
close  of  a  sentence,  the  concrete  will  be  some  other  interval  than 
the  tone,  or  will  move  in  a  downward  direction ;  this  tone  or 
second,  being,  as  will  be  shown  hereafter,  the  instinctive  intona- 
tion for  simple  thought,  exclusively  of  feeling  or  passion. 

The  peculiar  structure  of  this  movement  suggested  the  division 
of  it,  by  terms,  into  two  parts ;  and  the  use  of  these  terms,  for 
explanatory  purposes  in  the  following  history,  will  show  its  pro- 
priety. 

I  have  called  the  first  part  of  the  concrete,  or  that  of  a,  in  the 
above  instance,  the  Radical  movement ;  because,  with  a  full 
beginning  or  opening,  the  following  portion  of  the  concrete  pro- 
ceeds from  it  as  from  a  base  or  root. 

I  have  called  the  last  part,  or  that  of  e,  in  the  example,  the 
Vanishing  movement,  from  its  becoming  gradually  weaker  as  it 
rises,  and  finally  dying  away  in  the  upper  extreme  of  the  tone. 

It  must  strike  the  reader,  that  these  terms  can  have  only  a 
general  reference  to  the  two  extremes  of  the  concrete,  since  the 
gradual  change  of  the  radical  into  the  vanishing  movement,  pre- 
vents our  assigning  an  exact  point  of  distinction  between  them.       m 

When  a  single  alphabetic  sound,  capable  of  prolongation,  is 
uttered  with  propriety  and  smoothness,  and  without  emotion,  it 
commences  full  and  somewhat  abruptly,  and  gradually  decreases 
in  its  upward  movement,  until  it  becomes  inaudible ;   having  the 


II 


I 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  7I 

increments  of  time,  and  rise,  and  the  decrements  of  fulness, 
equably  progressive.  That  is,  supposing  a  gradual  diminution  of 
fulness,  in  tne  gradual  rise  through  a  tone  to  be  effected  in  a  given 
time ;  one  half  or  smaller  fraction  of  that  rise  and  diminution 
"will  be  effected,  in  one  half  or  smaller  fraction  of  that  time. 
Let  us  call  this  form  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement,  the 
Equable  Concrete. 

The  varied  forms  of  the  vocal  function  in  Song  and  Recitative, 
may  help  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  this  equability  in  the  intona- 
tion of  speech. 

The  long-drawn  voice  of  one  continued  pitch,  heard  in  song  and 
recitative,  is  produced  in  two  ways. 

First;  by  giving  the  greatest  proportion  of  time  and  volume 
to  one  continuous  or  level  line  of  sound,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  in  the 
radical  place  ;  and  by  subsequently  rising  concretely,  lightly,  and 
rapidly  through  all  the  superior  portion  of  the  concrete.  Let  us 
call  this,  the  Protracted  Radical. 

Second ;  by  rising  concretely,  lightly,  and  rapidly  through  all 
the  inferior  portion  of  the  concrete,  and  then  prolonging  the 
voice  with  greater  volume,  on  a  level  line  at  the  highest  point  of 
the  vanish.     Let  us  call  this,  the  Protracted  Vanish. 

Thus  far  then,  intonation  exhibits  three  modifications  of  the 
radical  and  vanishing  movement.  The  Equable  Concrete  of 
speech.  The  Protracted  Radical,  and  the  Protracted  Vanish ; 
both  of  which  are  used  in  song  and  recitative.  But  we  shall 
have  occasion  to  learn,  as  we  proceed,  the  various  relationships 
of  the  concrete,  to  all  the  simple  and  compounded  intervals,  to 
the  alphabetic  elements,  to  time,  and  force. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement  through 
a  tone,  to  explain,  by  that  interval,  the  formation  of  the  concrete 
rise,  and  its  threefold  division.  But  in  taking  a  wider  survey  of 
the  subject,  w^e  shall  learn,  —  the  radical  and  vanish,  is  made  on 
every  other  interval. 

Thus,  if  we  ascend  concretely,  from  the  seventh  to  the  eighth 
degree  of  the  scale,  by  a  and  e,  as  represented  in  the  second  dia- 
gram on  the  sixty-ninth  page,  that  is,  by  laying  a  stress  on  the 
two  extremes  of  this  interval,  the  voice  will  have  a  plaintive 


72  TflE  RADICAL  AND 

character,  very  different  from  that  of  the  tone,  or  interval  be- 
tween the  first  and  second.  Now  the  interval  from  the  seventh 
to  the  eighth  place  of  the  diatonic  scale,  is  a  semitone.  This 
plaintive  concrete  therefore,  —  when  attenuated,  and  made  equa- 
ble by  gradually  diminishing  the  stress  at  its  upper  extreme,  as 
shown  in  the  successive  symbols  of  that  diagram,  —  is  the  radical 
and  vanishing  movement  of  a  semitone. 

Again,  if  we  ascend  concretely  upon  a  and  e,  from  the  first  to 
the  third  place  of  the  scale,  with  a  stress  on  g,  in  that  third  place, 
the  eJDfect  of  this  continuous  movement  will  difi"er  from  that  of 
the  tone  and  the  semitone ;  for  it  will  resemble  a  moderate  degree 
of  interrogation  on  the  element  a.  This  concrete,  when  atten- 
uated or  made  equable,  by  successively  diminishing  the  stress  at 
its  upper  extreme,  is  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement  of  a 
third. 

By  a  process  analogous  to  that  just  proposed,  for  distinguishing 
the  interval  of  a  third,  we  may  ascertain  the  concrete  movement 
of  a  fifth,  and  of  an  octave :  For  these,  with  stress  at  their  upper 
extremes,  have  earnest  interrogative  expressions.  Then  by 
diminishing  the  stress,  as  directed  in  the  former  cases,  we  have 
respectively,  the  radical  and  vanishing  movements  of  the  fifth 
and  octave. 

In  this  manner,  the  ear  perceives,  under  their  various  degrees  " 
and  characteristics,  the  several  vocal  movements  of  a  Rising 
radical  and  vanishing  semitone, — tone  or  second,  major  and  mi- 
nor third,  fifth,  and  octave.  These  intervals  have  their  proper 
significations  in  the  expression  of  speech,  and  will  be  particularly 
noticed  elsewhere. 

The  above  description  represents  the  Concrete  rise  of  the  sev- 
eral intervals.  But  the  Discrete  scale  is  likewise  used  in  speech ; 
and  its  skipping  intervals  are,  perhaps,  as  readily  distinguishable 
as  the  gliding  intervals  of  the  concrete  scale.  When  therefore 
we  are  able  to  ascend  the  discrete  steps  of  the  diatonic  scale,  in 
proximate  succession,  and  to  recognize  its  Avider  intervals,  we 
have  only  to  mark,  by  some  vowel-sound,  the  first  and  second 
degrees  of  the  scale,  and  thus  to  form  the  discrete  rising  tone  or 
second.  In  like  manner  by  skipping  through  the  other  intervals, 
we  shall  have  a  discrete  rising  semitone,  third,  fifth,  and  octave. 


\ 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  73 

I  say  nothing  liere  of  a  radical  and  vanishing /oz^r^/i,  sixth,  and 
seventh  ;  or  of  loider  ranges  than  the  octave  ;  or  of  the  discrete 
movement  of  these  intervals ;  not  that  the  voice  does  not  use 
them,  but  because  a  reference  to  the  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  is 
sufficiently  precise  for  the  purpose  of  our  history. 

Let  us  consider  another  condition  of  the  radical  and  vanish. 
We  have  viewed  the  concrete  of  the  voice  only  in  its  rising  pro- 
gress. There  is  a  similar  glide  in  a  doivmvard  direction  through 
all  the  intervals  of  the  scale.  To  illustrate  this  subject,  in  the 
speaking  voice,  we  must  consider  the  scale  numerically,  in  its 
downward,  as  in  its  upward  course :  the  like  number  of  degrees 
constitutino;  intervals  of  the  same  name,  in  each  direction.  To 
express  this  descending  relationship,  music  employs  the  terms  — 
a  second,  a  third,  a  fifth,  and  an  octave,  helow :  whereas,  for  the 
intonations  of  speech,  I  shall  use  the  adjective-term  downward, 
or  descending,  or  falling,  to  denote  this  direction  on  the  scale. 
Referring  then  to  our  former  illustration,  if  the  bow  be  drawn 
while  the  finger  is  moving  continuously,  from  the  eighth  pla.ce 
on  the  string  to  the  first,  it  will  produce  the  concrete  descending 
sound  of  the  octave.  And  in  like  manner,  by  taking  other  parts 
of  the  scale  as  the  commencement  of  a  descending  concrete,  we 
have  all  the  other  downward  intervals.  To  exemplify  this  on 
the  voice,  the  descent  is  made  by  stress  applied  at  the  lower  ex- 
treme of  the  several  intervals,  —  thereby  to  render  their  charac- 
teristic expression  more  perceptible,  —  and  then  gradually  dimin- 
ished ;  as  illustrated  by  the  second  diagram,  on  the  sixty-ninth 
page,  when  taken  from  right  to  left  in  an  inverted  position.  In 
this  manner  beginning  with  a  in  the  octave,  the  movement  to 
e,  in  the  seventh,  will  be  the  downward  concrete  semitone. 

In  like  manner,  by  a  concrete  transition  from  the  second  to 
the  first  degree  of  the  scale,  the  downward  concrete  ton&  will  be 
heard  under  all  the  characteristics  of  the  radical  and  vanish ; 
with  this  difference,  however,  from  the  rising  movement :  the 
fulness  of  the  radical,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  is  now  at  the  sum- 
mit of  the  tone ;  while  the  vanish  equably  diminishes  to  the  lower 
extreme  of  this  interval ;'  the  e  faintly  ending  there.  And  in 
this  way,  a  downward  concrete,  from  the  third,  fifth,  and  eighth 
6 


74  THE  RADICAL  AND 

degree  of  the  scale  respectively  to  the  first,  without  its  termina- 
tive  stress,  will  give  the  downward  radical  and  vanishing  third, 
fifths  and  octave. 

The  downward  movement  is  likewise  made  in  the  discrete  pro- 
gression. This  may  be  readily  shown  on  the  Piano,  and  other 
instruments  with  a  scale  ef  fixed  degrees,  by  striking  in  succes- 
sion, the  extreme  notes  of  the  required  interval :  and  on  the 
voice,  by  a  unison-imitation  of  these  instrumental  sounds,  upon 
vowels  or  syllables ;  thereby  proving  the  existence  of  a  doAvn- 
ward  discrete  octave,  fifth,  third,  second,  and  semitone. 

He  who  is  acquainted  with  the  musical  scale,  but  has  not  yet 
looked  upon  it  in  reference  to  speech,  may  ascertain  the  upward 
course  of  the  tone  and  of  the  semitone,  when  made  on  a  vowel, 
by  comparing  their  effects  respectively  with  those  of  the  begin- 
ning, and  the  end  of  the  rising  scale.  And  in  like  manner,  he 
may  know  the  doivnivard  course  of  the  semitone  and  of  the  tone, 
by  comparing  them  respectively  with  the  beginning,  and  the  end 
of  the  descending  scale.  Every  one  knows  a  plaintive  expression 
in  speech :  it  is  easy  therefore  to  recognize  a  semitone.  And 
perhaps  there  is  not  too  much  confidence  in  asserting,  that  before 
the  attentive  and  competent  reader  has  finished  this  essay,  he 
will  have  no  more  difficulty  in  discriminating  every  other  im- 
portant interval  of  the  rising  and  falling  scale. 

Besides  the  above-described  forms  of  the  concrete  and  discrete 
movements,  both  in  an  upward  and  downward  direction,  there  is 
a  continuous  course  of  the  rising  into  the  falling  concrete,  and 
reversely,  a  continuity  of  the  falling  into  the  rising.  This  form 
of  the  radical  and  vanish  will  be  particularly  noticed  hereafter 
under  the  name  of  the  Wave.  It  is  called  Direct,  when  the  first 
interval  ascends,  and  the  second  descends :  Inverted,  when  the 
order  of  the  intervals  is  reversed :  Equal,  when  the  rising  and 
the  falling  are  the  same :  and  Unequal,  when  different.  It  is 
called  Single,  when  two  intervals  only  are  thus  joined :  Double 
when  another  is  joined  continuously  to  the  second  of  the  single 
form.  The  wave  is  made  through  all  the  intervals  of  the  scale : 
and  its   different    forms   may    be    variously    united    with   each 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  Y5 

other.  Thus  it  maj  be  double-direct,  unequal-direct,  double- 
unequal,  and  so,  in  all  possible  combinations. 

But  I  have  not  yet  finished  the  preparatory  explanations  on 
this  subject.  The  radical  and  vanish,  both  in  its -rise  and  fall, 
may  be  combined  with  Force,  in  the  six  following  forms.  First. 
The  radical  in  its  simple  state,  as  previously  shown,  is  distin- 
guished from  the  rest  of  the  concrete,  by  its  initial  stress. 
Second.  While  the  simple  state  of  the  radical  and  vanish  re- 
mains unaltered,  the  whole  concrete  may  be  magnified  as  it 
were,  by  unusual  force.  Third.  The  voice  may  be  swelled,  on  a 
prolonged  concrete,  or  wave,  to  the  fulness  of  a  stress,  at  the 
middle  of  its  course.  Fourth.  There  may  be  an  unusual  stress 
at  each  extremity  of  the  concrete.  Fifth.  While  the  radical  is 
reduced  in  fulness,  the  vanishing  extremity  may  have  a  forcible 
termination.  Sixth.  The  concrete  may  have  the  fulness  and 
force  of  the  radical  throughout  its  whole  course. 

The  following  diagrams  may  illustrate  the  foregoing  descrip- 
tions. For  this  purpose,  parts  of  the  musical  notation  are  em- 
ployed. The  lines  and  spaces  denote  places  of  pitch;  the  proxi- 
mate succession  of  line  and  space,  being  that  of  a  second  or  tone. 
These  lines  and  spaces  differ  from  the  staft"  of  the  musical  sys- 
tem ;  the  latter  being  founded  on  the  diatonic  scale,  denotes  in 
certain  places,  the  interval  of  a  semitone ;  whereas  the  lines  and 
spaces  for  the  notation  of  speech  signify  always,  the  succession 
of  a  tone,  except  otherwise  specified.  The  full  black  symbols 
on  these  lines  and  spaces,  with  their  issuing  and  tapering  appen- 
dages of  various  extent,  represent  the  opening  fulness,  direction, 
and  diminution  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  movements.  The 
distance  between  the  radicals,  of  the  concrete  seconds,  thirds, 
fifths,  and  octaves,  severally  represent  the  discrete  intervals. 
Time  is  represented  as  in  music :  the  open  ellipse  signifying  the 
longest;  the  small  head  and  stem,  with  its  two  hooks, —  marking 
the  duration  of  the  vanish, —  the  sixteenth  part  of  the  open 
ellipse.  Except  for  the  protracted  radical,  and  vanish,  the  nota- 
tion of  Time  will  not  be  employed.  This  subject  is  well  described, 
and  clearly  arranged  in  music ;  and  the  application  of  its  sym- 
bols to  speech,  when  desirable,  will  not  require  much  ingenuity 
or  labor. 


76 


THE  RADICAL  AND 


I  have  not  given  symbols  for  the  concrete  and  discrete  minor 
third,  and  semitone,  since  their  representation  on  the  staff  may 
be  easily  imagined. 


?    te   <^ 

s-  5  d 

"     C     3 


^a 


^- 


?5H 


5'H 


l.i 


£^ 


;ri5 


-^- 


.o 


Concret 
Rising 
Fifth. 

Concret* 

Downwa] 

Fifth. 

Concrete 
Rising 
Octave. 

Concret 

Downwai 

Octave. 

.M. 

jf< 

^^ 

i' 

^ 

f 

B 

1       J 

\ 

§ 

\ 

1       qpr 

^ 

\ 

Equal-single-di- 
rect wave  of  the 
second. 

Equal-single-in- 
verted, of  the 
fifth. 

Unequal- single- 
direct  of  the  fifth 
and  third. 

Unequal-invert- 
ed, of  the  third          ^ 
and  Octave.              \ 

Double-equal- 
direct,  of  the 
third. 

Double-unequal- 

invcrted,  of  the 

third,  fifth,  and 

third. 

'  .m,         '                '<             .    '                                      1 

^-^     '!•         ^    i     /^\     ' 

/  '  fiV 

^r^/^ 

•^    1  \^    !    U           1  , 

i^  /  1  ®^ 

1  ^     it^    1                     1 

n 


i  iifi 


Forms   of  stress   on  the   Concrete. 


In  the  above  notation,  there  is  no  meaning  in  the  curve  of 
the  vanish,  nor  in  the  circular  enlargement  of  the  radical.  In 
this,  as  formerly  remarked,  the  eye  only  was  consulted :  though 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  77 

I  cannot  say,  the  engraver  has  in  all  cases,  done  justice  to  the 
drawing  furnished.* 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  describe  an  important  and  delicate 
function  of  speech.  There  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  human  voice, 
which  as  far  as  I  have  observed,  has  never  been  copied  by  instru- 
mental contrivances.  The  sounds  of  the  horn,  flute,  and  musical- 
glass,  may  severally  equal  and  even  surpass  in  quality,  a  long- 
drawn  vocal  note :  still  there  is  something  wanting,  that  distin- 
guishes their  intonation  from  that  of  speech.  It  is  the  w^ant  of 
the  equable  gliding,  the  lessening  volume,  and  the  soft  extinction 
of  the  yet  inimitable  radical  and  vanishing  movement. 

And  further ;  the  simple  utterance,  of  the  radical  and  vanish 
seems  to  be  a  natural  and  uncontrollable  function  of  the  voice : 
since  to  my  observation,  it  appears, —  even  the  very  shortest  vocal 
impulse  on  a  vowel  or  syllable,  is  not  a  mere  point  of  sound, 
without  dimensions,  but  is  necessarily  made  upward  or  down- 
ward, through  some,  however  limited  movement  in  time.  This 
remark  is  true  of  the  voices  of  many  inferior  animals.  Does 
it  apply  to  all  ?  and  even  to  common  mechanical  noises  ? 

In  the  course  of  this  essay,  I  shall  endeavor  to  obviate  the 
effect  of  that  repetition  of  its  nomenclature,  which  the  purpose 
of  explanation,  and  the  newness  of  the  subject  might  require, 
by  the  use  of  various  abbreviated  but  equivalent  terms.      Thus 

*  On  first  observing  the  peculiar  character  of  the  radical  and  vanish ;  when 
ray  attention  was  sometimes  misled  by  hasty  conclusions  ;  and  while  doubtfully 
experimenting  on  the  form  of  melody,  I  drew,  partly  after  the  pattern  of  a 
musical  note,  the  symbol  of  the  concrete,  as  it  still  remains.  And  see,  how 
that  deceitful  thing  the  mind,  with  its  analogies,  should  be  watched.  Upon  the 
first  draft  of  the  illustrations,  the  graceful  lines  of  a  Greek  scroll  were  asso- 
ciated with  my  idea  of  the  gracious  impression  of  the  vanishing  movement;  and 
the  form  thus  given  to  the  symbol,  seems  to  have  subsequently  so  influenced 
my  perception  of  the  function,  that  perhaps  I  am  not  yet  quite  free  from  the 
analogical  feeling  that  suggested  it.  Although  aware  from  the  first,  that  the 
figurative  representation  of  the  radical  and  vanish,  should  be  by  the  outline  of 
a  cone,  still  the  wedge-like  symbol,  especially  if  set  obliquely  on  the  stafiF, 
seemed  too  awkward  a  picture  of  this  master  —  no,  this  mistress-principle  of 
the  voice. 

I  here  offer  an  apology  for  my  departure  from  correctness  in  the  illustration. 
If  I  have  committed  a  fault,  I  much  regret  it ;  and  thereupon  write  this  note, 
to  prevent  a  false  association  in  the  mind  of  the  reader. 


78  THE  RADICAL  AND 

the  Concrete  function  will,  according  to  the  general  or  specific 
purpose  in  its  use,  be  variously  called  the  radical  and  vanishing 
movement;  the  concrete  movement, —  progression, —  interval, 
or  —  pitch;  or  simplj,  the  radical  and  vanish,  or  the  concrete; 
or  the  radical  and  vanishing  tone, — semitone, —  third, —  fifth, 
and  octave.  The  Discrete  function  will  be  called  the  discrete 
movement, — progression, —  change, —  skip, — or  pitch;  or  the 
radical  movement,  —  change, — progression,  —  skip, —  or  pitch. 
Now  eaeh  of  the  above  phrases  may  have  the  specification  of 
rise  or  fall, —  upward  or  dowuAvard, —  ascent  or  descent,  ac- 
cording to  the  requisition  of  the  sense,  or  to  any  desirable 
variation  of  terms.  Should  the  direction  of  the  concrete,  or  the 
radical  movement  not  be  specified,  or  implied,  the  term  is  used 
for  either  rise  or  fall.  For  a  general  designation  of  the  extent 
of  intervals  and  waves,  all  greater  than  those  of  the  semitone 
and  second  will  be  called, —  wider^  from  its  forming  a  better 
rythmus  than  ivide,  in  qualifying  those  terms  of  intonation. 

Let  the  reader  then  not  be  alarmed  at  the  variety  of  these 
terms ;  for  at  present  he  need  not  particularly  regard  them,  but 
only  so  far  keep  them  in  mind,  as  to  be  able  to  refer  to  them,  if 
he  should  hereafter  find  it  necessary.  As  he  proceeds,  he  will 
perhaps  regard  them  as  brief  expressions,  suggested  so  imme- 
diately by  the  subject,  that  he  himself  might  have  made  them. 
Indeed,  a  future  wide  companionship  in  the  knowledge  of  speech, 
may  have  a  shorter  and  more  convenient  nomenclature  of  its  own. 

The  reader  must  not  be  discouraged,  by  his  first  difiiculty  in  dis- 
criminating the  intervals  of  speech.  There  was  much  to  perplex, 
and  to  threaten  with  dispair,  in  the  course  of  observation,  by 
which  these  intervals  were  first  measured  and  described.  But 
even  these  now  palpable  phenomena  were  not  perceived  at  a 
moment,  as  perhaps  they  might  be,  under  a  simple  and  real 
education  of  the  senses  and  of  thought.  For  the  mirror  of  the 
mind,  obscured  and  distorted  in  its  imagery,  by  a  habitual  occu- 
pation with  little  else  than  Fiction, —  and  Argument,  too  often 
the  provocative  of  fiction, —  is  yet  unprepared  to  reflect  the 
realities  of  nature  without  dimness  or  delay.  The  first  perceptions 
of  the  author  of  this  essay  were  full  of  indistinctness  and  doubt  ; 


VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  79 

far  greater  perhaps,  than  the  intelligent  reader  may  experience 
from  the  descriptions  in  this  section.  Yet  now  after  three 
years,  the  various  forms  of  pitch,  are  much  more  perceptible  to 
him,  than  differences  of  colors  without  direct  comparison ;  and 
quite  as  distinguishable  as  the  literal  and  syllabic  sounds  of 
discourse. 


SECTION  III. 

Of  the  Elementary  Sounds  of  the  JEnglish  Language  ;  with  their 
Relations  to  the  Radical  and  Vanishi7ig  31ovement. 

The  radical  and  vanishing  concrete,  under  all  its  forms,  is  em- 
ployed on  a  limited  number  of  elementary  sounds,  said  to  amount 
in  the  English  language,  to  thirty-five.  It  seems  useless  to  raise 
a  distracting  question,  on  the  subject  of  the  kind  and  number  of 
the  elements.  There  will  perhaps  always  be  refinements  and 
differences  on  this  point.  The  thirty-five  here  assumed,  afford 
all  the  distinctions  required  for  the  purposes  of  this  work.  And 
they  have  been  found  sufficient  for  all  practical  purposes,  by 
those  who  have  no  time  nor  fondness  for  dispute.* 

An  alphabet  should  consist  of  a  separate  symbol  for  every  ele- 

*  Englisk  philologists  have,  according  to  their  real  or  affected  nicety  of  ear, 
differed  on  the  subject  of  the  number  of  the  elements  of  their  language.  The 
differences  refer  to  the  character  of  the  sounds,  or  to  the  time,  or  manner  of 
pronouncing  them.  Thus  the  sound  of  a  in  all,  and  of  o  in  occupy  have  been 
enumerated  as  different.  But  that  difference  sems  to  consist  in  the  abrupt  utter- 
ance of  oc,  or  the  suddenness  -with  which  the  sound  breaks  from  the  organs.  A 
like  distinction  has  been  made  between  o  in  ooze,  and  u  in  bwU :  where  the  explo- 
sive accent  seems  to  give  the  perceptible  difference  to  the  short  vowel.  Now 
this  abruptness  of  voice,  is  a  generic  function,  applicable  to  all  vowels,  and  there- 
fore not  a  ground  for  specific  distinction.  After  all  however,  it  is  of  little  prac- 
tical consequence,  whether  cases  like  these  are  decided  one  way  or  the  other. 


80  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

mentary  sound.  Under  this  view,  the  deficiencies,  redundancies, 
and  confusion  of  the  system  of  alphabetic  characters  in  the  Eng- 
lish language,  prevent  the  adoption  of  its  common  grammatical 
subdivisions  here. 

The  sounds  of  the  alphabetic  elements  are  the  material,  and 
their  combination  into  significant  words,  the  formal  causes  of  all 
language.  It  appears  to  me  however,  that  a  classification,  ac- 
cording to  their  functions  in  producing  other  phenomena  of 
speech,  besides  that  of  mere  articulation,  would  be  practically 
useful  as  well  as  logically  just.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  Into- 
nation is  one  of  the  most  important  functions  of  speech :  conse- 
quently the  ordering  of  the  elements  if  practically  regarded, 
should  have  some  reference  to  it.  In  the  present  section  there- 
fore, these  elements  will  be  described  and  classed,  according  to 
their  use  in  intonation.* 
I 

*  I  set  aside,  in  this  place  at  least,  the  sacred  division  into  vowels,  consonants, 
mutes  and  semivowels.  The  complete  histoiy  of  nature  -will  consist  of  a  full  de- 
scription of  all  the  interchangeable  relationships,  notof  notions,  but  of  perceptible 
things.  We  received  the  classication  of  the  alphabet  from  Greek  and  Roman 
grammarians :  and  their  division,  accoi'ding  to  organic  causes,  into  labial,  lingual, 
dental,  and  nasal  elements,  is  now  strictly  a  part  of  the  physiology  of  speech. 
But  whatever  reason,  connected  with  the  vocal  habits  of  another  nation,  or  the 
etymologies  of  another  tongue,  may  have  justified  the  division  into  vowels  and 
consonants  according  to  their  definition,  it  does  not  exist  with  us.  Without  de- 
signing to  overlook  or  destroy  any  arrangement,  truly  representing  the  rela- 
tionships of  these  sounds,  it  is  only  intended  in  this  essay  to  add  to  their  history 
a  classification  grounded  on  their  important  functions  in  speech.  The  strictness 
of  philosophy  should  not  be  so  far  forgotten,  as  to  suifer  the  claim  of  this  classi- 
fication to  be  exclusive.  Let  it  remain,  as  a  constituent  portion  only,  of  new  and 
wider  prospects,  yet  to  be  opened  in  the  art. 

Passing  by  other  assailable  points  of  our  immemorial  system,  the  contra-dis- 
tinction  of  its  two  leading  divisions,  is  a  misrepresentation.  Had  he  an  ear 
who  said  —  a  consonant  cannot  be  sounded  without  the  help  of  a  vowel  ? 

Among  the  thousand  mismanagements  of  literary  instruction,  there  is  at  the 
outset  in  the  horn-book,  a  pretence  to  represent  elementary  sounds,  by  syllables 
composed  of  two  or  more  elements,  as :  Be,  Kay,  Zed,  double-U,  and  Aitch. 
These  words  are  used  in  infancy,  and  through  life,  as  simple  elements  in  the 
process  of  synthetic  spelling.  But  no  error  or  oversight  of  the  school  should 
ever  make  us  forget  the  realities  of  nature. 

Any  pronouncing-dictionary  shows  that  consonants  alone  may  form  syllables ; 
and  if  they  have  never  been  appropriated  to  words  which  might  stand  solitary  in 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  81 

As  the. number  of  elementary  sounds  in  the  English  language 
exceeds  the  literal  symbols,  some  of  the  letters  are  made  to  rep- 
resent various  sounds,  without  a  rule  for  discrimination.  I  shall 
endeavor  to  supply  this  want  of  precision,  by  using  short  words 
of  known  pronunciation,  containing  the  elementary  sounds,  with 
the  letters  that  represent  them,  marked  in  italics. 

The  thirty-five  Elements  are  now  to  be  considered  under  their 
relationships  to  the  radical  and  vanish.  And  as  the  properties 
of  this  function  are  —  prolongation  of  sound,  and  variation  of 
pitch,  with  initial  force  and  final  feebleness;  these  elements 
should  be  regarded  in  their  varied  capacity  for  the  display  of 
these  properties. 

With  this  view,  our  elements  of  articulation  may  be  arranged 
under  three  general  heads. 

The  first  division  embraces  sounds  with  the  radical  and  vanish 
in  its  most  perfect  form.  They  are  twelve  in  number  ;  and  are 
heard  in  the  usual  sound  of  the  separated  italics,  in  the  following 
Avords : 

§4-11,  a-rt,  a-n,  a-\e,  oii-r,  ^-sle,  o-ld,  ee-l,  oo-ze,  e-rr. 
e-nd,     and    i-n. 

From  their  being  the  purest  and  most  manageable  material 
of  intonation,  I  have  called  them  Tonic  sounds. 

They  consist  of  difi"efent  sorts  of  Vocality  ;  or  of  that 
quality  of  voice  in  which  we  usually  speak,  and  here  contradis- 
tinguished from  whisper  ox  aspiration.  They  are  produced  by 
the  joint  functions  of  the  larynx,  and  parts  of  the  internal  and 
external  mouth. 

The  tonics  are  of  a  more  tunable  nature  than  the  other 
elements.  They  are  capable  of  indefinite  prolongation ;  admit 
of  the  concrete  and  tremulous  rise  and  fall,  through  all  the 
intervals  of  pitch ;  may  be  uttered  more  forcibly  than  the  other 
elements,  as  well  as  with  more  abruptness :  and  while  these  two 
last  characteristics  are  appropriate  to  the  natural  fulness  and 

a  sentence  like  the  vowels  a,  i,  o,  ah,  and  awe,  it  is  not  that  they  cannot  Idc  so 
used  ;  but  because  they  have  not  that  full  and  manageable  nature  -which  exhibts 
the  quantity,  force,  and  intonation  of  an  unconnected  syllable,  with  sufficient 
emphasis  and  with  agreeable  effect. 


82  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

Stress  of  tlie  radical,  the  power  of  prolongation,  upon  their  pure 
and  controllable  quality,  is  finely  accommodated  to  the  delicate 
structure  of  the  vanishing  movement.  Altogether,  they  have, 
for  the  purposes  of  an  agreeable  intonation,  a  eutony,  briefly  so 
to  call  it,  beyond  the  other  elements. 

The  next  division  includes  a  number  of  sounds,  possessing 
variously  among  themselves,  a  character  analogous  to  that  of 
the  tonics ;  but  differing  in  degree.  They  amount  to  fourteen  ; 
and  are  marked  by  the  separated  italics,  in  the  following  words : 
-B-ow,  c^-are,  ^-ive,  i;-ile,  z-one,  y-e,  zv-o,  th-en,  a-2-ure, 
si-ng,    l-ove,   m-aj,    n-ot,   r-oe. 

From  their  inferiority  to  the  tonics,  for  all  the  emphatic  and 
elegant  purposes  of  speech,  while  they  admit  of  being  intonated 
or  carried  concretely  through  the  intervals  of  pitch,  I  have 
called  them  Sithtonio  sounds. 

They  all  have  a  vocality ;  but  in  some  it  is  combined  with  an 
aspiration.  B,  d,  g,  ng,  I,  m,  n,  r,  have  an  unmixed  vocal- 
ity ;  V,  z,  7/,  to,  til,  zJi,  have  an  aspiration  joined  with  theirs. 
We  have  learned  that  the  vocality  of  the  tonics  is,  in  each,  pecu- 
liar. The  vocality  of  some  of  the  subtonics  is  apparently  the 
same ;  and  among  all,  it  does  not  greatly  differ ;  resembling 
that  of  certain  five  of  the  tonics,  to  be  described  presently.  Like 
the  vocality  of  the  tonics,  it  is  formed  in  the  larynx ;  but  the 
sound  in  passing  through  the  mouth  may  have  a  modifying 
reverberation  in  the  fauces,  and  cavities  of  the  nose.  Some  sub- 
tonic  vocalities  are  purely  nasal,  as :  m,  w,  ng,  b,  d,  g.  Others 
are  partly  oral.  The  nasal  are  soon  silenced  by  closing  the 
nostrils  :  the  rest  are  not  materially  affected  by  it.  The 
vocality  of  5,  c?,  and  g^  may  not  be  immediately  apparent  to 
those  who  have  not,  by  practice  on  the  separate  elements, 
attained  the  full  command  of  pronunciation.  Writers  have 
spoken  of  the  vocality  of  these  elements,  under  the  name  of 
*gutteral  murmur,' and  have  regarded  it  as  a  peculiar  sound. 
It  is  the  vocality,  heard  in  v,  i/i-en,  2,  zli^  and  r,  modified  into 
the  respective  articulations  of  5,  d  and  g.  The  vocality  of  h,  d 
and  g,  in  ordinary  speech,  has  less  duration  and  intensity,  and 
is  consequently  less  perceptible  than  that  of  v,  ^A-en,  0,  zli^  and 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  83 

r,  but  is  the  same  in  kind.     It  is  the  vocality  alone  of  h,  that 
distinguishes  it  from  p. 

I  have  enumerated  y  and  w,  as  the  initial  sounds  of  ye  and 
wo  ;  since  ?/  is  a  vocality,  like  that  of  the  other  subtonics,  mixed 
with  an  aspiration  over  the  tongue,  when  near  the  roof  of  the 
mouth,  and  w  a  similar  vocality,  mixed  with  a  breathing  through 
an  aperture  in  the  protruded  lips.  As  h,  d,  g  and  zh  are  made 
by  joining  vocalities,  instead  of  aspirations,  with  the  organic 
positions  of  p,  t,  k  and  sh  ;  so  y  and  iv  are  severally  the  mixture 
of  vocality  with  the  pure  aspiration  of  7i,  as  heard  in  he,  and  of 
w7i,  as  heard  in  w/i-irl'd.  The  addition  of  vocality  to  the 
aspiration  changes  these  words  respectively  to  ye  and  world. 

This  vocality  of  the  subtonics,  whether  pure  or  mixed,  nasal 
or  oral,  is  variously  modified  by  the  nose,  tongue,  teeth  and 
lips.  An  entire  or  partial  obstruction  of  the  current  of  breath 
through  the  mouth,  and  a  subsequent  removal  of  the  obstruc- 
tion, produces  the  peculiar  sound  of  the  subtonics :  for,  on  pro- 
nouncing 6,  d,  and  g,  and  it  is  the  same  with  all,  the  voice 
breaks  from  its  obstruction,  with  a  short  terminative  impulse. 
Now  it  is  in  the  momentary  portion  of  subtonic  sound,  heard  on*^ 
removing  yiis  obstruction,  that  the  character  of  the  vocality,  in 
some  of  these  elements,  may  be  most  readily  perceived.  This  , 
vocida  or  little  voice,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  is  mentioned  by 
writers  as  being  necessary  to  complete  the  utterance  of  their 
class  of  Mutes ;  but  it  may  be  heard  more  or  less  conspicuously 
at  the  termination  of  all  the  subtonics.  It  is  least  perceptible 
in  those,  having  the  most  aspiration.  In  ordinary  utterance  it 
is  short  and  feeble ;  and  is  most  obvious  in  forcible  or  affected 
pronunciation.  When  the  subtonics  precede  the  tonics,  they 
lose  this  short  and  feeble  termination,  and  take  in  its  place  the 
full  sound  of  the  succeeding  tonic,  thus  producing  an  abrupt 
opening  of  the  tonic. 

I  have  called  this  last-vented  sound  of  the  subtonics,  the 
Vocule  ;  and  have  been  thus  particular  in  noticing  and  naming 
it,  as  both  the  function  and  the  terra  will  be  referred  to,  in 
treating  on  Syllabication,  and  on  Expression.   • 

The  five  tonic  sounds,  to  which  the  vocalities  of  the  subtonics 


84  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

bear  a  resemblance,  are  ee-\,  oo-ze^  e-rr,  e-nd,  i-n.  Y-e  and 
tv-o  have  respectively  something  like  a  nasal  echo  of  ee-l,  and 
oo-ze.  B,  d,  g,  v,  then  z,  zh  and  r  resemble  e-rr ;  ?,  m,  and 
n  have  something  of  the  sound  of  e-nd  ;  and    ng,  of  i-r\. " 

The  subtonics  are  subordinate  to  the  tonics,  in  their  character 
and  uses.  The  kind  of  sound  is  less  agreeable.  Compared 
with  the  clear  vocal-fulness  of  the  tonics,  their  quality  is  obscured 
in  the  purest ;  and  in  others,  is  destroyed,  by  the  aspiration. 
They  are  severally  capable  of  more  or  less  prolongation,  and 
may  be  carried  through  the  concrete  and  tremulous  variation  of 
pitch.  None  admit  of  much  force  in  their  vocality ;  nor 
can  abruptness  be  given  to  them  M'ithout  extraordinary  effort. 
Now  these  last  named  insuflBciencies  prevent  the  subtonics  from 
forming,  like  the  tonics,  a  proper  radical  fulness  on  the  con- 
crete. When  therefore  a  subtonic  precedes  a  tonic,  as  in  the 
syllable  vain,  the  vocality  of  v,  compared  with  the  vocality  of 
a,  is  so  feeble,  that  with  only  a  common  effort  of  utterance, 
there  is  an  absence  of  the  strong  and  sudden  opening  of  the 
radical.  The  subtonic  does  indeed  make  a  short  initial  to  the 
syllable,  and  then  breaks  from  its  vocule  into  the  succeeding 
tonic ;  but  when  prolonged,  its  natural  tendency  is,  ig  continue 
on  one  line  of  pitch  until  the  tonic  a  opens  from  the  vocality  of 
V,  and  rises  with  the  true  character  of  the  radical.  It  must  not 
from  this,  be  concluded, —  the  subtonics  can  in  nowise  form  the 
radical  opening  of  a  syllable ;  for  all  of  them,  when  separately 
uttered,  may  be  carried  concretely,  through  every  interval ;  and 
even  preceding  the  tonics,  a  strenuous  effort  may  give  them 
somewhat  of  the  radical  abruptness.  But  in  ordinary  pronun- 
ciation, they  are  scarcely  appreciated  as  a  part  of  the  initial 
concrete. 

This  want  of  force  and  abruptness  in  a  subtonic,  does  not 
prevent  it  from  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  the  vanish,  when  it 
succeeds  a  tonic.  Thus  in  the  syllable  vain,  the  a,  as  we  have 
said,  begins  the  radical,  and  after  rising  through  a  portion  of 
the  interval,  glides  into  the  subtonic  n,  which  carries  on  and 
completes  the  vanish.  This  seems  to  be  the  result  of  the  tonics 
having  no  vocule. 


4 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  86 

The  remaining  nine  elements  are  Aspirations,  and  have  not 
that  kind  of  sound  called  vocalitj.  They  are  produced  by  a 
current  of  the  whispering  breath  through  certain  internal  and 
external  parts  of  the  mouth.  They  are  heard  in  the  sound  of 
the  separated  italic,  in  the  words, 

JJ-p,    on-t,    ar-k,    i-/,    je-s,    /i-e,    tvh-ea,t,    th-'m,    pu-sA. 

From  their  limited  power  of  variation  in  pitch,  even  when 
uttered  singly,  with  the  designed  effort  to  produce  it ;  and  from 
their  supplying  no  part  of  the  concrete  when  breathed  among  the 
constituents  of  syllables,  I  have  called  them  Atonic  sounds. 

On  comparing  their  articulative  production  with  that  of  some 
of  the  subtonics,  we  find  them,  respectively,  almost  identical  in 
all  their  conditions,  except  that  of  vocality,  which  is  wanting 
in  the  atonies. 

B.  D.  G.  y.  Z.   Y.  W.  Th.  Zh.  Ng.  L.  M.  N.  R. 

I     I     !    I     I     I     i      I      I 

p.  T.  K.  F.  S.  H.  Wh.  Th.  Sh. 

This  whispering  imitation  is  not  made  on  all  the  sujbto- 
nics.  Yet  the  five  exceptions  do  not  altogether  destroy  the 
idea,  that  nature  has  her  '  formative  effort'  towards  a  general 
rule  of  duplicature  in  these  creations.  The  m,  n,  and  ng  are 
purely  nasal ;  and  when  their  vocality  is  dropped,  the  attempt  to 
utter  them,  by  the  mere  breathing  of  the  atonies,  produces  in 
each  case  similar  snuffling  aspirations.  Yet  even  this  snuflfling, 
though  no  reputed  element  of  speech,  is  used  before  the  vocality 
of  n,  m,  or  ng,  as  the  inarticulate  sign  of  sneer.  The  two  re- 
maining subtonics  I  and  r,  in  perfect  English  speech,  are 
unmatched  by  atonies.  But  the  aspirated  copy  of  I,  produced  by 
a  kind  of  hissing  over  the  moisture  of  the  tongue,  is  occasionally 
heard:  and  a  true  atonic  parallel  to  r,  in  Avhat  is  called  the 
'  Northumbrian  burr, '  is  in  Britain,  not  an  uncommon  defect  of 
utterance.* 

•Bishop  AVilkins,  in  his  ' Essay  towards  a  real  character,' has  enumerated 
the  aspirated  I  and  r,  among  the  provincial  vices  of  speech,  and  has  allotted 
literal  symbols  to  them. 


86  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

The  atonies,  from  the  unfitness  for  intonation,  that  suggested 
their  name,  aiFord  no  A^ocal  means  for  the  radical  and  vanish. 
Most  of  them  have  a  perceptible  vocule,  consisting  of  a  short 
aspiration  like  the  whispering  of  e-rr.  There  is  no  tunable  qual- 
ity whatever  in  their  sound.  They  have  the  power  of  prolonga- 
tion, but  on  a  poor  material.  Though  thus  inferior  in  most  of 
the  purposes  of  speech,  to  the  other  elements,  yet  it  will  be  shown 
in  treating  of  Expression,  that  the  Aspiration  is  both  significa- 
tive, and  emphatic. 

The  enumeration  under  the  preceding  divisions,  includes  all 
the  elementary  sounds  of  the  English  language,  that  apart  from 
questionable  and  unimportant  points,  have  been  noticed  by  observ- 
ant authors. 

Three  of  the  subtonics  6,  d,  and  g,  and  three  of  the  atonies, 
k,  p,  and  t,  have  eminently  an  explosive  character;  the  breath 
bursting  out  after  a  complete  occlusion.  From  their  peculiar 
purposes  in  speech,  they  may  be  distinguished  as  a  subdivision, 
and  called  Abrupt  elements.  In  the  beginning  of  a  syllable,  they 
produce  a  sudden  opening  of  the  succeeding  sound ;  and  at  the 
end,*  they  exhibit  their  final  vocule.  The  office  of  these  abrupt 
elements,  in  the  art  of  speaking,  will  be  shown  in  treating  of  Ex- 
pression. 

The  foregoing  arrangement  of  elementary  sounds  was  devised, 
to  give  a  general  view  of  their  respective  relationships  to  intona- 
tion. For  a  further  development  of  this  subject,  I  now  describe 
particularly,  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  Tonics. 

In  illustratincr  the  nature  of  the  radical  and  vanishino;  move- 
ment,  by  the  tonic  «-le,  it  was  stated,  —  this  element  consists  of 
two  kinds  of  sound,  and  that  wlien  uttered  with  inexpressive 
eifort,  the  voice  rises  through  the  interval  of  a  tone;  the  radical 
beginning  on  a,  and  the  vanish  diminishing  to  a  close  on  e.  Now 
as  all  the  tonic  sounds  necessarily  pass  through  the  radical  and 
vanish,  they  demand  an  analysis  relatively  to  it. 

These  seven  of  the  tonic  elements, 

a-we,    a-rt,    a-n,    a-le,    z'-sle,    o-ld,    ou-r, 
have  respectively,  diiferent  sounds  at  their  two  extremes. 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  87 

The  remaining  five, 

ee-\,    oo-ze,    e-n;    g-nd,    i-n, 

have  each,  one  unaltered  sound  throughout  their  concrete. 

The  tonics  may  therefore  be  properly  divided  into  Dipthono's 
and  Monothongs. 

A-we  has  for  its  radical,  the  nominal  sound  of  a  in  a-we ; 
for  its  vanish,  a  short  and  obscure  sound  of  the  monothong  g-rr. 

A-rt  has  for  its  radical  the  nominal  sound  of  a  in  a-rt :  its 
vanish  like  that  of  the  preceding,  being  the  short  and  obscure 
sound  of  g-rr. 

The  radical  of  a-n  is  the  nominal  sound  of  a  in  a-n.  Its 
vanish  is  the  same  in  degree  and  kind  as  the  last. 

The  sound  of  each  of  these  elements  has  heretofore  been  con- 
sidered homogeneous  throughout :  for  their  vanish  being  feeble 
in  ordinary  utterance,  it  has  escaped  perception.  But  it 
may  be  heard  by  using  these  elements  severally,  with  earnest 
interrogation ;  as  they  will  each  terminate  at  a  high  pitch,  in  a 
faint  sound  of  e-rr. 

A-\e,  as  shown  formerly  has  its  radical,  with  the  distinct  sound 
of  the  monothong    ee-\    for  its  vanishinor  movement. 

1-sle  has  its  radical,  followed  in  like  manner  by  a  vanish  of 
the  monothong  ee-\.  The  dipthongal  nature  of  ^,  has  long  been 
known,  and  the  discovery  of  it  is  attributed  to  Wallis,  the  gram- 
marian. It  is  described  by  Sheridan  and  others,  as  consisting 
of  a- we  and  ee-\ :  the  coalescence  of  the  two  producing  the  pecu- 
liar sound  of  {.  In  this  account,  it  is  admitted  that  the  element 
is  peculiar ;  one  can  therefore  see  no  need  of  reference  to  a-we, 
in  the  theory  of  its  causation.  A  skilful  ear  will  readily 
perceive,  —  the  radical  of  i-sle  is  a  peculiar  tonic,  without  having 
recourse  to  any  supposition,  of  its  change  from  a  previous  sound. 

0-ld  has  its  radical  in  the  sound  of  o,  formerly  supposed  to  be 
homogeneous.  Its  vanish  is  the  distinctly  audible  sound  of  the 
monothong  oo-ze. 

Ou-r  has  a  radical,  followed  in  like  manner  by  a  vanish  of  the 
monothong  oo-ze.  That  the  first  sound  of  this  dipthongal  tonic 
is  not  a-we,  but  a  radical  of  its  own,  may  easily  be  proved  by  a 


88  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

discriminating  ear :  and  a  trial  with  the  voice  "wil'l  show,  that 
a-we  does  not  unite  with  oo-ze,  bj  the  easy  gliding  transition, 
heard  in  the  junction  of  the  true  radical  of  ou-r  with  the  same 
oo-ze. 

I  have  been  at  a  loss  what  to  say  of  the  sound  signified  by  oi 
and  0?/,  as  in  voice  and  hot/.  It  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  dip- 
thongal  tonic,  consisting  of  the  radical  a-we,  and  of  the  vanish- 
ing monothong  i-n,  when  the  quantity  of  the  element  is  short, 
and  of  ee-\  when  long.  But  from  the  habit  of  the  voice,  it  is 
difficult  to  give  a-we  without  adding  its  usual  vanish  of  e-vr ;  and 
this  makes  the  compound,  a  tripthong.  If  taken  as  a  dipthongal 
tonic,  this  is  the  only  instance  in  which  the  same  radical  has  two 
different  vanishes.  And  though  this  reason  should  not  be  con- 
clusive against  its  classification,  it  suggests  an  examination  of 
the  subject.  In  case  this  sound  should  be  considered  as  a  true 
dipthongal  tonic,  and  analogies  seem  in  favor  of  it,  the  number 
of  tonics  would  be  thirteen,  and  the  whole  of  the  elements 
thirty-six. 

The  seven  radical  sounds  with  their  vanishes,  thus  described, 
include  as  far  as  I  observe,  all  the  elementary  dip  thongs  of  the 
EnMish  language.  In  the  common  scholastic  definition,  the 
terms  dipthong  and  tripthong  mean  a  combination  of  two  or 
three  visible  letters^  not  a  fluent  union  oi plionetic  elements.  Ac- 
cording to  the  foregoing  history,  and  under  our  view,  the  term 
dipthong,  denotes  the  transition  of  the  voice  from  one  tonic  sound 
to  another  ;  forming  thus  the  impulse  of  one  syllable,  by  a  con- 
tinuous gliding,  without  a  perceptible  change  of  organic  efl"ort, 
in  the  transition.  By  the  term  elementary,  applied  to  a  dip- 
thong, I  mean  to  point  out  the  inseparable  bond  of  its  copstitu- 
ents  ;  the  nature  or  the  habit,  whichever  it  may  be,  of  the  voice, 
ha  vino-  so  decreed  the  series  of  the  two  sounds,  that  the  first  or 
radical  cannot,  in  unpremeditated  utterance,  be  given  without 
terminating  in  the  second  or  vanish. 

The  remaining  five  tonics  are  monothongs,  and  have  one  kind 
of  sound  for  both  the  radical  and  vanishing  movements.  They 
are 

oo-ze,  ee-\,  e-rr,  e-nd,  i-n. 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  gg 

When  the  element  ee-\  is  deliberately  uttered,  in  asking  a 
question  with  earnest  surprise,  it  has  the  same  unvaried  sound, 
from  the  radical  outset,  to  the  end  of  its  vanish.  One  of  the 
forms  of  interrogation  ■will  be  shown  hereafter,  to  be  the  interval 
of  a  radical  and  vanishing  octave  ;  and  the  same  homogeneous 
course  of  ee-\  may  be  heard  through  the  fifth,  third,  tone,  and 
semitone.  This  manner  of  displaying  the  course  of  the  un- 
changed concrete  in  ee-\,  will  show  an  analogous  result  in  the 
cases  of  the  four  other  monothongal  tonics.  Whereas,  if  the  dip- 
thongal  tonics  are  uttered  with  the  interrogative  intonation,  the 
difference  between  their  radical  and  vanishing  portions  is  at  once 
perceptible.  There  is  the  same  uniformity  of  sound,  throughout 
the  other  monothongs,  with  the  exception  of  i-n.  This  element, 
in  some  syllabic  combinations  preserves  its  essential  character, 
only  within  a  slight  extension :  and  we  leave  others  to  class  it, 
if  proper,  as  a  short  and  abrupt  utterance  of  ee-\. 

The  nature  of  the  tonics,  as  here  described,  may  be  otherwise- 
plainly  shown.  We  learned  in  the  last  section,  the  distinction 
between  the  equable  concrete  of  speech,  and  the  protracted  radi- 
cal and  protracted  vanish,  of  song.  Now  the  use  of  these  pro- 
tracted forms  of  intonation  will  exhibit  the  structure  of  the  tonic 
elements.  For  an  attentive  ear  may  perceive,  when  the  dipthongs 
are  sung  with  a  protracted  vanish,  —  the  voice  quickly  leaves 
the  radical,  and  dwells  in  continuation  on  the  different  sound  of 
the  vanish.  The  protracted  note,  in  the  vanish  of  the  monothongs, 
will  be  respectively  the  same  in  sound  as  their  radicals.  The 
words  of  an  ordinary  melody  in  slow  time,  or  any  church  psalm, 
will  afford  proof  on  this  point. 

Another  illustration  of  the  real  dipthongal  character  of  seven 
of  the  tonics,  may  be  drawn  from  the  phenomena  of  rhyme. 
Rhyme  is  a  well  known  relationship  in  the  sound  of  syllables, 
and  consists  in  most  cases,  of  a  difference  between  the  first 
elemental  sound  of  each  of  the  compared  syllables,  and  an 
identity  between  all  the  subsequent  elemental  sounds,  each  to 
each:  the  agreeable  effect  of  rhyme  depending  chiefly  on  the 
particular  relations  of  the  tonic  sounds.  The  first^  is  the  relation 
of  tonics  thoroughly  identical ;  as,  dame,  came.  The  second,  of 
7 


90  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

tonics,  witli  a  different  radical,  but  the  same  vanishing  movement; 
as,  cars,  wars.  The  third,  of  tonics,  differing  both  in  their  radi- 
cals and  vanishes,  yet  of  nearest  resemblance  in  their  quality  of 
sound  ;   as,  good,  blood. 

The  use  of  the  second  kind  of  rhyme  shows  the  composition  of 
the  dipthongal  tonics.  In  the  following  lines,  the  correspondence 
of,  oo-zc,  in  doom,  with  o-ld,  in  home ;  and  of  a-le,  in  obei/,  with 
ee  1,  in  tea,  is  admitted  as  canonical  in  rhyme,  from  an  identity 
of  the  vanishes  of  a-le  and  o-ld,  respectively  with  the  monothongs 
ee-\  and  oo-ze. 

Here  Britain's  statesmen  oft  the  fall  foredoom 
Of  foreign  tyrants,  and  of  nymphs  at  home ; 
Here  thou,  great  Anna  !  whom  three  realms  obey, 
Dost  sometimes  counsel  take  —  and  sometimes  tea. 

The  assimilation  of  the  sounds  of  a-le  and  ee-],  by  the 
identity  of  their  vanishes,  together  with  a  very  exceptionable 
rythmus,  produces  the  monotony  and  the  want  of  elegance  in 
the  four  following  lines  : 

Swift  to  the  Lock  a  thousand  sprites  repair, 
A  thousand  wings,  by  turns,  blow  back  the  hair; 
And  thrice  they  twitch'd  the  diamond  in  her  ear; 
Thrice  she  looked  back,  and  thrice  the  foe  di-ew  near. 

Besides  the  differences  arising  from  singleness  of  sound,  and 
from  dipthongal  combination,  the  tonics  exhibit  a  variety  in  time, 
both  Avhen  uttered  separately,  and  in  syllabic  association.  Two 
general  divisions  may  be  made. 

A-we,  a-vt,  a-n,  a-le,  ee-\,  i-s\e,  o-nr,  oo-ze,  may  be  called 

long  tonics:  and 

e-vr,     e-nd,     ^-n, 

short.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  the  latter  may  not,  by 
designed  effort,  be  made  as  long  as  the  former :  they  have  their 
places  in  this  arrangement,  from  their  usual  time  in  English  syl- 
lables. In  the  prolongation  of  i-n,  it  changes  nearly,  if  not  en- 
tirely, into  ee-\ :  and  as  it  thus  seems  to  owe  its  character,  in 
short  pronunciation,  to  its  abruptness,  it  might  be  merged  in  ee-\. 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  Ql 

and  rejected  as  a  distinct  element.  When  the  long  tonics  are 
combined  with  other  elements,  into  syllables,  their  time  is  of  every 
distinguishable  degree,  from  a  momentary  impulse,  to  the  longest 
passionate  utterance  of  an  interjection,  as:  from  o-tt  to  a-we, 
from  ou-t  to  h-ow,  from  a-t  to  a-h.1 — a-te  to  h-ay,  —  p-ea-t  to 
ee-\,  —  f-oo-t  to  oo-ze,  —  c-a-rt  to  a-rms,  —  k-i-te  to  2-sle. 

The  time  of  the  short  tonics,  in  combination,  has  much  less 
variety.  But  however  short  any  of  the  tonics  may  be,  they  do 
even,  in  their  least  duration,  still  pass  rapidly  through  the  con- 
crete movement. 

All  the  elements,  except  the  abrubt  atonies  Jc,  p,  t,  have  a 
variety  in  duration.  The  vocality  of  the  subtonics  affords  the 
means  of  their  time,  and  its  prolongation  is  next  in  importance 
to  that  of  the  tonics,  for  the  purposes  of  correct  and  ele- 
gant expression. 

Should  it  be  asked,  why  the  dipthongs  are  here  designated 
as  elementary,  when  each  may  be  resolved  into  greater  sim- 
plicity ;  it  may  be  answered ;  —  the  dipthongs,  though  com- 
pounded of  different  successive  sounds,  yet  these  are  inseparable 
in  utterance :  and  regarding  an  element  as  a  single  impulse  of  the 
voice,  the  dipthong  must  be  classed  with  it.  I  cannot  pro- 
nounce the  radical  of  a  dipthong  without  in  some  manner, 
giving  also  its  vanish.  The  radical  may  indeed  be  indefinitely 
sustained  on  its  level  line  of  pitch,  and  we  may  attempt  to  cut 
•  it  off  by  a  sudden  occlusion  of  the  voice ;  but  it  can  be  termi- 
nated only  by  a  glide  through  the  vanish,  which,  however  quick, 
or  feeble,  or  varied  by  aspiration  or  otherwise,  from  its  natural 
sound,  may  still  be  heard.  In  the  equable  concrete  of  speech, 
the  rapid  pronunciation  of  a  dipthong,  and  the  feebleness  of  its 
vanish,  may  diminish  the  audibility  of  this  second  sound,  but  to  an 
attentive  ear  it  will  not  be  altogether  lost.  And  further,  not 
only  does  the  radical  of  a  dipthong  demand  its  own  peculiar 
vanish,  but  it  cannot  be  carried  through  a  given  interval  without 
sliding  into  that  vanish.  For  when  we  attempt  to  lead  the  voice 
through  an  octave  on  the  dipthong  a-we  or  a-le,  its  radical  may 
by  effort  be  continued  up  to  the  seventh  of  the  scale :  still,  the 
final  close  on  the  eighth  will  unavoidably  turn  respectively  to 


92  ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS. 

e-YY  or  ce-\.  A  similar  change  takes  place  on  all  smaller  inter- 
vals, in  an  endeavor  to  make  monothongs  of  the  dipthongal 
radicals. 

If  an  elementary  character  be  denied  to  the  dipthongs,  by 
regarding  them  as  separable  sounds,  it  will  not  increase  the 
number  of  simple  tonics  beyond  twelve:  for  the  reader  may 
have  already  remarked, —  the  vanishing  portions  of  the  dip  thongs 
consist  exclusively  of  the  monothongs. 

It  follows,  from  what  has  been  said  on  the  indivisible  nature 
of  the  dipthongs,  that  their  radicals  cannot  be  united  with  any 
other  vanishes,  than  those  already  ordained  in  the  practice  of  the 
voice :  and  notwithstanding  what  has  been  observed,  assumed, 
and  transcribed  by  writers,  on  the  subject  of  the  dipthongal 
union  of  the  vowels,  the  instances  here  enumerated,  appear  to 
be  all  that  belong  to  English  speech.  Every  attempt  to  make 
further  combinations,  produces  a  voice  that  wants  the  smooth 
transition  and  singleness  of  syllabic  impulse,  characterizing  a 
dipthong,  and  heard  perfectly  united,  only  in  the  double  sound 
of  the  above  named  seven  elementary  tonics. 

As  the  dipthongal  tonics  are  respectively  produced  by  joining 
a  monothong  to  a  radical  of  different  sound,  and  as  all  the 
possible  permutations  of  their  union  are  not  employed,  we 
may  inquire,  whether  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  voice  to 
make  a  greater  number  of  dipthongs,  than  here  enumerated,  by 
uniting,  severally,  every  monothong  with  each  radical  tonic. 
Now  as  there  are  seven  radicals  and  five  monothongs,  we  might 
upon  this  scheme,  have  thirty-five  dipthongs.  But  it  appears 
we  have  only  eight,  supposing  oi  to  be  included :  the  radical  of 
a-ive,  as  stated  above,  being  severally  combinable  with  two 
monothongs,  and  each  of  the  rest  with  one.  Other  combina- 
tions may  be  made  ;  but  they  have  not  a  fluent  transition,  like 
those  which  already  belong  to  the  language  and  have  their  literal 
symbols.  Would  these  new  associations  call  for  a  management 
of  voice,  not  altogether  instinctive,  and  therefore  requiring  a 
practice  and  skill,  not  yet  reached  in  English  speech  ?  Have 
any  of  these  supposed  dipthongs  been  admitted  among  the 
alphabetic  elements  of  other  nations  ?     And  are  these  unused 


ALPHABETIC  ELEMENTS.  93 

materials  of  the  voice,  to  be  classed  with  those  resources  in  the 
animal  economy,  destined  to  afford  their  benefits  under  higher 
cultivation,  and  the  widening  demands  of  human  progression ; 
when  the  mind,  turned  from  its  corruptions,  and  restored  to 
purity,  shall  cease  to  love  fiction,  better  than  truth  ?  In  regard- 
ing the  construction  of  the  dipthongs  under  another  view,  we 
may  consider  them  as  mere  syllables,  compounded  of  a  tonic 
and  subtonic :  since  the  monothongs,  when  used  as  vanishes 
to  the  radical  tonics,  have  in  some  degree  the  character  of  sub- 
tonics  ;  and  since  they  lose  the  fulness  of  the  radical  opening, 
natural  to  them,  when  uttered  by  themselves.  The  vanish  of 
a-le  is  very  nearly  allied  to  y-e,  if  not  identical  with  it ;  and 
the  vanish  of  ou-r  bears  as  near  a  relation  to  w-o.  It  will  be 
evident  too  on  trial,  that  if  a  radical  character  be  given  to  these 
vanishes,  they  will  not  unite  with  the  previous  radical,  into  one 
impulse  of  the  voice. 

It  was  said,  in  a  former  part  of  this. section, —  the  subtonics 
may  be  uttered  separately ;  their  own  obscure  vocalities  bear- 
ing, respectively,  a  resemblance  to  those  of  the  five  monothongs. 
Hence  some  syllables  may  be  formed  exclusively  by  subtonics. 
In  the  words  bidde-n,  i-dle,  schis-m,  rytli-m,  rive-n,  Jic-kle,  and 
words  of  like  construction,  the  last  syllable  is  either  purely  sub- 
tonic,  or  a  combination  of  subtonic  and  atonic.  And  though 
these  final  syllables  do  go  through  the  radical  and  vanishing 
movement,  they  are  far  inferior  in  quality,  abruptness,  eutony 
and  force,  to  the  full  display  of  these  properties,  on  the  tonics. 
The  reason  why  words  of  this  construction  are  necessarily 
divided  into  two  syllables,  will  appear  in  the  following  section. 


94  THE  NATURE 


SECTION  IV. 

Of  the  influence  of  the  Radical  and  Vanishing  3Iovement,  in 
the  production  of  the  various  'phenomena  of  Syllables. 

The  foregoing  history  of  elementary  sounds,  and  of  the  radi- 
cal and  vanishing  movement,  will  enable  us  to  explain  some  of 
the  phenomena  of  Syllabication. 

What  are  the  particular  functions  of  the  voice,  that  produce 
the  characteristics  of  syllables  ? 

What  determines  their  length  ? 

Why  are  syllables  limited  in  length,  otherwise  than  by  the 
term  of  expiration :  and  what  produces  their  ordinary  length, 
when  there  is  no  obstruction  to  the  further  continuation  of  the 
sound  of  tonic  and  subtonic  elements  ? 

And  finally,  what  prescribes  the  rule  that  allows  but  one 
accent  to  a  syllable  ? 

I  shall  endeavor  to  answer  these  questions  concisely  and  in 
their  order. 

That  elemental  sound,  or  that  order  of  elemental  sounds 
called  a  syllable,  is  a  necessary  effect,  or  accompaniment  of  the 
radical  and  vanishing  movement :  and  every  syllable,  consisting 
of  one  or  more  of  these  sounds,  derives  its  singleness  of  impulse, 
and  its  respective  length,  from  certain  relations  between  this 
concrete  movement,  and  the  various  tonic,  subtonic,  and  atonic 
elements.  As  the  reader  cannot  have  from  me,  vocal  exempli- 
fication of  this  subject,  a  decision  upon  the  argument  contained 
in  the  following  conditions  and  inferences  is  left  to  his  own 
experimental  inquiry. 

If  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement  of  the  voice  through 
a  tone  or  other  interval,  is  the  essential  function  of  a  syllable, 
it  follows  that  each  of  the  tonics  may  by  itself,  form  a  syllable : 
since  they  cannot  be  pronounced  singly,  without  going  through  the 
radical  and  vanish.  Now  the  tonics  are  employed  for  monsyllabic 
words,  as  in  eye,  a,  awe;  for  interjective  particles,  as  in  oh^ 
ah ;  and  for  mono-literal  syllables,  as  in  e-vince,   a-corn,  o-ver. 


OF  SYLLABICATION.  95 

.  It  follows  also  from  the  assumed  causation  of  a  syllable,  that 
two  tonics  cannot  be  united  into  one  vocal  impulse.  For  each 
having  its  own  radical  and  vanish,  they  must  produce  two  sylla- 
bles. Consistently  with  this,  we  find,  whenever  two  elementary 
tonics  adjoin,  they  always  belong  to  separate  syllables  in  pro- 
nunciation, as  in  a-e-rial,   o-a-sis,   t'-o-ta. 

If  the  radical  and  vanish  of  the  voice  alone,  makes  a  syllable 
what  it  is,  it  follows  that  the  atonies,  being  incapable  of  that 
function,  cannot  make  a  new  and  distinct  syllabic  impulse  when 
joined  with  the  tonics.  The  word  speaks  exhibits  the  meaning 
of  this  inference.  For  the  syllabic  function  is  here  made  on  the 
tonic  ee-\ ;  while  s,  j?,  h  and  s,  add  to  the  time,  but  do  not  des- 
troy the  monosyllabic  character  of  that  word.  It  is  true,  the  s 
on  each  extreme  is  a  distinct  sound,  but  having  no  radical  and 
vanish  it  has  no  more  the  character  of  a  syllable,  than  the  hiss- 
ing of  a  water-jet ;  and  therefore  does  not  interrupt  the  single- 
ness of  impulse.  The  voice  in  this  word,  is  not  indeed  so  gliding 
as  on  a  single  tonic,  which  shows  a  syllable  in  its  purest  form : 
yet  this  obstruction  is  very  different  from  that  of  the  threefold 
division,  in  the  word  Ohio.  For  when  this  is  pronounced,  with 
a  radical  and  vanish  on  each  of  its  tonics,  they  cannot  be  con- 
densed into  a  single  impulse.  In  answer  then  to  the  first  ques- 
tion ;  It  is  the  concrete,  modified  by  the  several  elements,  that 
produces  the  characteristics  of  those  impulses  called  syllables. 

Syllables  are  of  difi'erent  lengths.  Is  this  an  arbitrary  varia- 
tion :  or  is  it  the  unavoidable  efiect  of  the  nature  of  the  concrete, 
and  of  the  elementary  sounds  ? 

This  question  is  not  asked  in  reference  to  prosodial  quantities; 
nor  to  those  emphatic  prolongations  of  voice,  that  give  force  or 
solemnity  to  oratorical  expression.  It  regards  especially  the 
difference  of  length  in  syllables,  created  by  their  elementary 
constituents ;  for  it  will  be  shown  that  the  limit  of  a  syllable  is 
determined  by  the  nature  and  arrangement  of  these,  within  the 
concrete. 

In  order  to  render  this  subject  perspicuous,  let  us  take  a  syn 
thetic  view  of  the  literal  series  in  words. 


96  THE  NATURE 

Several  of  the  tonics  as  shown  above,  individually  and  alone, 
form  words  and  syllables.  These  exhibit  the  syllabic  impulse 
of  the  radical  and  vanish,  in  its  Simple  condition  ;  and  their 
length  may  equal  that  of  the  time  of  expiration  ;  thus  forming  a 
few  exceptions  to  the  limitation  of  extent,  in  all  other  syllables. 
But  elements  cannot  be  combined  with  a  view  to  lengthen  a  syl- 
lable, by  the  addition  of  one  tonic  to  another ;  for  this  would  pro- 
duce a  new  and  separate  impulse. 

The  combining  of  elements,  with  relation  to  the  length  of  syl- 
lables, is  made  under  the  following  circumstances  of  their  nature 
and  position.  If  to  the  element  a-le  the  atonic/  be  prefixed, 
the  syllable  fa  will  be  formed,  with  the  concrete  rise  on  a,  pre- 
ceded by  the  atonic  aspiration.  If  to  these  the  atonic  s  be  sub- 
joined, the  word /as,  {face)  will  be  longer  than  the  two  elements 
/and  a;  still  the  triple  compound  will  be  one  syllable,  since  it 
can  have  only  one  concrete  rise.  For  though  these  two  atonies 
may  be  clearly  heard,  as  part  of  the  length  of  the  syllable,  yet 
being  incapable  of  the  concrete  function,  the  radical  and  vanish 
through  the  given  interval,  is  made  altogether  on  a,  as  if  the 
word  consisted  of  that  element  alone.  The  addition  of  atonies 
to  tonics,  is  then  the  first  manner  of  increasing  the  length  of  a 
syllable,  without  destroying  its  singleness  of  impulse. 

Further,  if  to  the  tonic  a,  the  subtonic  I  be  prefixed,  the  syl- 
lable la  will  be  longer  than  a,  yet  will  have  but  one  radical 
and  vanish.  It  was  said  formerly,  that  when  a  subtonic  is  ut- 
tered before  a  tonic,  the  vanish  of  the  subtonic  does  not  occur  : 
for  when  the  subtonic  is  prolonged,  it  continues  on  one  level  line 
of  pitch,  till  its  vocule  opens  into  the  tonic,  which  then  begins 
the  intended  interval  with  its  radical,  and  completes  it  with  its 
vanish ;  but  in  common  utterance,  the  vocule  of  the  subtonic 
breaks  at  once  into  the  radical  of  the  tonic,  which,  as  in  the  last 
case,  begins  and  completes  the  interval.  Now  in  the  syllable  Za, 
I  does  begin  the  impulse  with  its  vocality,  and  without  percepti- 
bly rising,  joins  the  vocality  of  a;  a  then  opening  with  a  full 
emphatic  radical,  rises  and  vanishes  on  the  e  of  its  upper  extreme. 
If  to  la  the  subtonic  v  be  subjoined,  the  compound  lav  [lave) 
will  be  longer  than  la ;  while  its  syllabic  character  will  still 


OF   SYLLABICATION,  97 

be  preserved,  by  the  singleness  of  its  radical  and  vanish.  In 
the  pronunciation  of  lav,  the  intonation  of  I  and  a  will  be  as 
before,  except  that  a  will  not  now  rise  so  far  through  the  con- 
crete :  for  a  subtonic  being  capable  of  the  gliding  concrete,  v 
will  in  this  case,  join  in  with  a  before  it  reaches  the  upper 
limit  of  the  interval,  and  thus  complete  the  vanish  of  the  sylla- 
ble. The  junction  of  subtonic  elements  to  tonics,  is  therefore 
a  second  manner  of  adding  to  the  length  of  a  syllable,  without 
destroying  the  unity  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  concrete. 

Moreover,  if  the  abrupt  element  t  be  prefied  to  a,  the  sylla- 
ble ta  will  be  but  a  single  impulse.  If  g  be  subjoined  the 
word  tag  will  still  exhibit  only  one  radical  and  vanish.  In  this 
way,  two  abrupt  atonies  joined  with  the  short  tonics,  as  in  cut, 
pet,  tik,  produce  the  shortest  syllables  in  the  language  :  yet  here 
the  concrete  movement,  however  short,  is  still  performed,  the 
radical  of  the  tonic,  opening  from  the  first  abrupt  element,  and 
the  vanish  closing  on  the  last.  This  union  of  abrupt  elements 
with  tonics,  is  a  third  manner  of  preserving  the  singleness  of 
impulse  in  a  syllable,  under  the  variation  of  its  length. 

Tne  three  different  sorts  of  combination  described  above, 
produce  their  various  lengths,  in  the  manner  represented  by  the 
examples  under  each  head.  But  none  of  them  can  be  much 
extended  beyond  the  given  instances,  while  they  are  restricted 
to  the  kind  of  elements,  employed  in  their  respective  cases. 

A  fourth  manner  of  combining  elements,  is  by  a  union  of  all 
the  different  kinds,  in  one  syllable.  To  illustrate  this,  we  have 
only  to  consider,  that  whenever  a  pause  occurs  after  a  subtonic, 
consequently  whenever  it  is  uttered  singly,  or  at  the  end  of  a 
syllable,  it  unavoidably  assumes  the  concrete  movement :  and 
that  the  same  takes  place  when  a  subtonic  is  followed  by  an 
atonic  ;  as  in  this  case,  there  is  a  termination  of  vocality ; 
which  in  effect,  is  equivalent  to  a  pause.  In  each  of  the  words 
strange,  (properly  strandzh)  and  strength,  and  the  imaginary 
syllable  sglivzd,  there  is  but  one  radical  and  vanishing  move- 
ment ;  and  the  singleness  of  impulse  is  owing  to  the  peculiar 
arrangement  of  the  different  kinds  of  elements.  Each  consists 
of  seven  sounds,  which  is  perhaps  the  greatest  number,  the 


98  THE  NATURE 

nature  of  the  elements  allows  to  a  syllable,  even  with  the  best 
contrived  combination.     The  radical  and  vanish  of  these  sylla- 
bles is  made  on  ange,  eng    and    ivzed,  and  the  principle    of 
vocal  management  of  the  other  elements  is  analogous  in  each : 
for  r  and  I  being  subtonics  respectively  before  the  tonics  a-le, 
e-nd,  and  z'-le,  do  not  take  on  the  concrete.     T  being  an  abrupt 
atonic,  adds  nothing  to  the  vocality  of  r,  and  the  preceding 
atonic  s,  having  no  concrete  function,  the  three  elements  s,  t, 
and  r,  in  strange,  and  strength,  and  the  s,  g  and  I  in  the  imaginary 
syllable,  slightly  lengthen  the  beginning  of  these  several  words, 
without  destroying  the  unity  of  their  impulses :  while  the   w,  d, 
and  zh,  the  ng,  the  v,  z  and  c?,  which  respectively  follow  the 
tonics,  a,  g,  and  z,  take  up  the  concrete  movement  from  these 
tonics,  and  complete  the  vanish  of  the  single  syllabic  impulse. 
The  final  atonic  tli,  in  strength,  merely  adds  to  the  time  of  that 
word,  without  bearing  part  in  the  concrete.     The  constituents 
in  each  of  the  above  words  may  be  combined  into  one  syllable, 
in  other   series :  but  in  all  cases,  the  atonies  must  be  on  the 
extremes.     If  otherwise,  as  in  the  arrangement  rstange,  the 
whole  cannot  be  pronounced  as  one  syllable.     For  the  vocality 
of  r,  ceasing  on  account  of  the  subsequent  atonic  s,  this  r  must 
take  on  the  concrete  movement,  and  thus  become  a  syllable. 
The  reader  may  remember,  it  was  said, —  the  subtonics  are  capa- 
ble of  the  radical  and  vanish  when  uttered  separately :  and  the 
termination  of  their  sound  by  an  atonic,  produces  this  condition. 
In  the  above  combinations,  and  in  such  syllables  as  ma^'l,  lorn, 
and  bold,  the  subtonics  unite  smoothly,  not  only  with  the  radi- 
cal, and  with  the  vanish  of  a  tonic,  but  they  themselves  unite, 
in  their  vanishes,  smoothly  with  each  other.     Nor  is  it  obvious, 
why  the  occlusion  of  the  subtonics  should  not,  in  this  last  case, 
interfere  with  the  gliding  of  the  syllabic  concrete. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  show,  that  the  various  lengths  of 
syllables  depend  on  the  nature  and  arrangement  of  their  con- 
stituent elements,  in  the  execution  of  the  radical  and  vanish. 

The  following  notation  may  illustrate  the  preceding  account 
of  the  structure  of  syllables.  This  scheme  represents,  the 
movement  of  a  third ;  but  it  is  the  same,  in  all  intervals.     The 


OF  SYLLABICATION. 


99 


dotted  line  denotes  the  atonic  aspiration.  The  thick  black  line, 
united  to  the  radical,  denotes  a  prolonged  note  of  the  subtonic, 
when  it  precedes  a  tonic,  and  opens  into  its  radical.  It  is 
marked  as  a  line,  to  represent  its  vocality,  and  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  dotted  points  of  the  aspirations.  In  ordinary  utter- 
ance, without  emphatic  expression,  this  line  is  but  of  momentary 
length.  The  full  black  radical,  with  its  issuing  appendage, 
signifies  the  tonic  alone,  or  the  tonic  in  combination  with  a 
vanishing  subtonic. 


3  ^ 
5*  a 


A-e 


H     ^     o 


§  -3 


H    -g    ^ 


ZI 


—L.^JL.X— J 


F-A-e      F-A-e-3     L-A-e    L-A-e-v      T-A-e     T-A-e-k 


A  combination  of  each  of  the 
species  of  elements. 


The  double  syllabic 
impulse  by  change. 


I—-  •  ••  I 


St — r-andzh 


St — r-eng — th 


R-r    st — andzh 


In  this  notation,  the  atonic  sounds  are  represented  by  the 
dotted  lines,  as  if  they  had  a  certain  place  in  pitch ;  but  being 
mere  aspirations,  their  place  is  in  no  appreciable  relation  to  that 
of  the  tonics  and  subtonics  :  and  I  beg,  the  reader  may  so 
understand  the  notation,  where  the  atonic  symbols  are  used  to 
show  the  presence  of  the  aspirated  voice. 

If  the  principle  of  syllabication  does  not  depend  on  a  restric- 
tion by  the  concrete,  and  on  the  nature  and  position  of  the  ele- 
ments, here  assigned,  a  syllable  might  contain  an  indefinite 
number  of  tonic  sounds,  combined  with  such  other  elements  as 
have  no  marked  occlusion :  and  consequently,  the  length  of  the 
syllable  would  be  limited  only  by  the  time  of  expiration ;  the 
possibility  of  which  case  will  be  considered  presently.  But  from 
the  influence  of  the  radical  and  vanish,  in  the  common  aggre- 
gates of  elementary  sounds,  the  duration  of  a  syllable  is  quickly 


100  THE  NATURE 

arrested.  There  are  twelve  tonics;  fourteen  subtonics;  nine 
atonies  ;  and  six  abrupt  elements.  Twelve  of  these,  the  nine 
/^atonies  and  the  three  abrupt  subtonics,  being  productive  of  an 
interruption  to  the  continuity  of  the  syllabic  impulse,  the  pro- 
miscuous mingling  of  all  the  elements  must  give  one  of  these, 
an  average  position  in  every  third  or  fourth  place  among  the 
tonics  and  subtonics,  and  thereby  set  a  limit  to  the  duration  of 
syllabic  sound.  Sometimes  this  interruption  produces  syllables 
of  two  elements  only :  and  it  has  never,  perhaps,  in  the  English 
language,  allowed  any  syllable  in  use,  to  extend  beyond  seven. 

The  reason  why  the  vf ords' strange  and  strength  cannot  be  made 
longer,  without  more  than  ordinary  effort,  is  this :  Tonic  ele- 
ments cannot  be  added,  since  no  two  of  them  can  be  united  into 
one  vocal  impulse.  Nor  will  these  words  bear  a  subtonic  at  the 
beginning ;  for  s  being  an  atonic,  any  subtonic  uttered  before  it 
must  come  to  a  pause,  must  therefore  go  through  its  vanish,  and 
thus  produce  a  separate  syllable.  An  atonic  prefixed  to  these 
words  would  not  indeed  make  a  new  concrete ;  but  would  pro- 
duce a  varying  effort  of  hissing  and  aspiration,  bearing  no  resem- 
blance to  the  audible  and  gliding  nature  of  tonic  and  subtonic 
syllabication. 

In  answer  then  to  the  question, —  why  syllables  are  not  con- 
tinued to   the  utmost  length  of  an  act  of  expiration, —  it  has 
been  shown,  that  as  speech  employs  all  the  elements,  the  abrupt 
I   and  atonic  must  necessarily  divide  the  time  of  one  expiration, 
into  different  syllabic  impulses. 

From  the  four  kinds  of  elementary  sounds,  employed  in  the 
construction  of  syllables,  let  us  now  suppose  the  atonic  and 
abrupt  to  be  rejected,  and  consequently  the  last  mentioned  cause 
of  limitation  to  be  removed.  Why  is  it  impossible  in  this  case 
to  give  indefinite  length  to  a  syllable,  formed  by  the  union  of  a 
tonic  with  any  number  of  subtonics  ?  —  Or,  why  is  such  a  sylla- 
ble otherwise  limited,  than  by  the  term  of  expiration  ? 

When  a  tonic  precedes  a  subtonic,  in  the  formation  of  any 
concrete  interval,  it  gives  up  a  portion  of  its  movement  to  the 
subtonic,  which  then  carries  on  and  completes  the  vanish.  In 
this  way,  the  radical  and  vanish  may  consist  of  a  tonic  and  one, 


OF  SYLLABICATION.  101 

two,  three,  or  at  most,  four  subtonics.  But  tlie  number  cannot, 
in  easy  pronunction,  be  extended  beyond  these.  Thus  in  the 
syllable  strandzh  (strange)  ^the  concrete  rise  begins  on  a,  and 
continuing  through  n,  d  and  zh,  vanishes  on  the  last.  If  two 
more  subtonics  v  and  m,  were  subjoined  to  this  word,  as  in 
strandzhvm,  few  speakers  could  make  one  pure  syllable  impulse 
of  the  combination.  The  reason  of  this  difficulty,  or  as  we  may 
call  it,  impossibility,  will  appear  in  the  following  remarks. 

In  an  ordinary  use  of  the  voice,  the  concrete  rises  or  falls 
through  the  interval  of  a  tone,  or  third,  or  fifth ;  and  employs 
therein  a  certain  portion  of  time.  Now  though  the  concrete 
and  the  time  of  these  intervals  may  indeed  be  executed  on  one 
tonic,  combined  with  several  subtonics ;  yet  there  is  a  limit 
to  the  number,  utterable  by  an  easy  effort  in  correct  speech. 
For  since  each  constituent  should  have  a  certain  duration,  to 
render  it  cognizable  as  a  variation  of  pitch,  while  to  insure  a 
distinct  pronunciation,  each  should  consume  a  portion  of  the 
time  of  the  concrete  :  it  is  found  by  experiment,  each  constituent 
does  consume  so  much,  that  not  more  than  four  subtonics,  to- 
gether with  the  preceding  tonic,  can  in  easy  utterance  be  com- 
pressed into  the  time  and  space  of  the  radical  and  vanish,  or  of 
the  wave. 

In  pronouncing  a  combination  of  tonics  and  subtonics,  greater 
than  can  be  included  in  a  single  concrete,  or  a  wave,  either  two 
syllables  must  be  formed  by  two  separate  concretes,  or  some  one 
or  more  of  the  numerous  constituents  must  be  prolonged  on  one 
line  of  pitch.  And  though  this  last  would  not  necessarily  pro- 
duce two  syllables,  yet  by  assuming  the  characteristic  note  of 
song,  it  would  be  very  different  from  the  effect  of  the  true  equa- 
ble syllabic-concrete,  and  would  thus,  annul  the  condition  of  the 
question  before  us. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  show  why,  in  ordinary  speech,  syl- 
lables cannot  be  indefinitely  extended,  when  they  consist  only  of 
tonic  and  subtonic  sounds,  and  consequently  when  there  is  no 
obstruction  to  their  continuation,  by  the  interposition  of  abrupt 
and  atonic  elements. 

A  further  consideration  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  move- 


102  THE  NATURE 

ment,  will  inform  us  why  there  is,  ordinarily,  but  one  effort  of 
accentual  stress  on  each  syllable.  It  was  shown  in  the  last  sec- 
tion that  the  form  of  force,  called  Accent,  is  variously  laid  on 
the  concrete.  First ;  by  the  abrupt  explosion  of  the  radical. 
Second ;  by  magnifying,  so  to  speak,  the  whole  of  the  concrete, 
the  proportional  forces  of  the  radical  and  vanish  remaining  un- 
altered. Third ;  by  giving  more  force  to  the  middle  of  the  con- 
crete. Fourth  ;  by  an  abrupt  stress  on  the  radical,  together 
with  an  increased  force  on  the  vanish  of  the  same  concrete. 
Fifth  ;  by  greater  stress  on  the  vanishing  portion.  Sixth  ;  by 
making  the  whole  concrete  of  the  same  fulness  that  naturally  be- 
longs to  the  radical.  Five  of  these  forms  do  not  alter  the  single- 
ness of  the  accentual  impression.  Something  like  an  exception 
to  the  rule  of  a  single  accent,  seems  to  exist  in  the  fourth,  as 
will  be  particularly  noticed  under  the  future  head  of  Expression  : 
but  this  condition,  if  an  exception  at  all,  is  not  of  common  occur- 
ence, and  is  by  no  means  contemplated  here,  in  looking  at  the 
ordinary  phenomena  of  syllabic  speech. 

From  what  has  been  said,  the  reader  may  perceive  a  differ- 
ence in  syllables  as  regards  the  quality  of  sound,  and  the  gliding 
continuity  of  voice.  The  most  eminent  are  those  formed  by  a 
single  tonic :  and  although  the  concrete  rise  of  a  dipthong  con- 
sists of  two  dissimilar  sounds,  it  is  not  inferior,  in  the  above 
named  characteristics  to  the  uniform  voice  of  a  monothong. 

The  next  degree  of  eutony  in  a  syllable  is  that  formed  by  an 
initial  tonic,  followed  by  one  or  two  subtonics,  as :  am,  ale,  arm, 
earn,  elm,  orle.  These  have,  with  an  agreeable  quality,  an  easy 
mingling  of  their  constituents  ;  and  their  tonic  commencement 
allows  an  equable  concrete  movement,  from  the  opening  to  the 
close  of  the  syllable. 

The  equable  progress  is,  to  a  certain  degree,  impaired  in  that 
order  of  elements,  where  the  first  sound  is  a  subtonic,  as  in  mains, 
gale,  warms,  zearn,  realm.  Now  since  the  radical  in  these  cases, 
does  not  properly  begin  on  the  first  element,  there  may  be  in 
careless  pronunciation,  a  slight  Note  or  level  line  of  pitch  in  the 
utterance  of  the  subtonic  preceding  the  tonic. 

The  next  of  the  syllabic  combinations  contain  each  of  the 


I 


OF  SYLLABICATION.  J[03 

three  kinds  of  elements,  as  swarms,  strength,  tJiroivn,  smiles. 
Here  the  atonic  sounds  are  not  agreeable.  They  obscure  the 
character  of  the  concrete  movement ;  and  though  they  do  not 
destroy  its  singleness  of  impulse,  they  are  attended  with  some 
hiatus,  from  the  changes  of  position  in  the  organs  that  produce 
them. 

A  few  syllables,  such  as  the  last  of  lit-tle,  are  made  of  subtonics 
and  atonies,  without  the  addition  of  a  tonic.  They  are  altogether 
without  force  and  fulness  in  the  radical  opening:  and  have  a 
slight  nasal  vocality,  which  is  most  remarkable  in  this  case  from 
its  not  being  modified  by  syllabic  union  with  the  clear  laryngeal 
sound  of  the  tonics. 

The  syllabic  impulse  has  various  degrees  of  smoothness  and 
eutony,  from  the  perfect  coalescence  of  the  two  constituents  of  a 
dipthongal  tonic,  when  uttered  alone,  as  a  syllable,  —  to  the 
transition  through  an  impulse,  compounded  of  all  the  elements. 
There  is  a  peculiarity  in  the  structure,  and  a  hiatus  in  the  pro- 
nunciation of  certain  words,  from  their  apparently  embracing  two 
concretes  in  the  same  syllable.  The  words  flower,  higher,  hoy, 
voice,  and  coin,  by  a  slight  variation  in  effort,  may  each  be  uttered 
either  as  one,  or  as  two  syllables.  Under  the  first  condition, 
they  seem  severally  to  consist  of  the  union  of  two  tonics  in  one 
syllable,  which  is  impossible.  YDiqh  flower  is  pronounced  with  a 
single  impulse,  it  must  be  upon  the  elements,/,  I,  ou,  and  r,  and 
this  accords  with  our  history  of  syllabication.  When  the  tonic 
e-rr  is  sounded  before  r,  the  double  impulse  cannot  be  avoided. 

We  have  considered  the  syllable  as  essentially  a  function  of 
the  radical  and  vanish ;  and  this  function  is  equally  productive 
of  the  syllabic  impulse,  in  a  downward  as  in  an  upivard  direction. 
And  it  will  be  further  shown  in  a  future  section,  when  the  reader 
is  prepared  to  understand  the  explanation,  that  the  unity  of  a 
syllable  is  not  destroyed  by  a  movement  of  the  voice,  in  continu- 
ity from  the  upward  into  the  downward  concrete,  in  what  we 
called  the  wave. 

By  the  light  of  the  preceding  analysis,  we  may  perceive  causes 
that  might  otherwise  be  hidden.  Thus,  we  account  for  the  dis- 
agreeable effect,  produced  both  in  the  organs  of  utterance  and  on 


104  THE  NATURE 

the  ear,  by  the  use  of  the  indefinite  article  a  before  a  vowel  (or 
tonic,)  and  by  other  similar  successions ;  as   in  aorta. 

When  we  utter  the  tonics  in  series,  we  may  smoothly  pass  from 
one  to  the  other  without  a  break,  and  without  the  point  of  junc- 
tion being  appreciable.     In  this  case,  the  elements  are  joined  to 
each  other  by  the  mediation  of  the  subtonic  ?/-e ;  as  when  we 
enumerate  the  vowels,  a,  ye,  yi^  yo,  yu.     But  in  this  continuous 
utterance,  there  is  an  absence  of  the  fulness  and  abruptness  of 
the  tonic  radical;  since  abruptness  always  requires  a  previous 
occlusion  of  the  voice.    The  eflect  is  different  in  the  continuation 
of  a  subtonic  into  a  tonic;  for  the  subtonics   having   a  slight 
occlusion  with  its  consequent  vocule,  means  are  afforded,  by  this 
occlusion,  and  by  the  outset  of  this  vocule,  for  the  formation  of 
the  abrupt  sound  of  the  tonic;  and  consequently  a  true  radical 
may  be  made  on  a  tonic  continuous  with  a  preceding  subtonic. 
When  we  attempt  to  join  the  article  a  to  a  tonic  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  following  word,  an  unpleasant  perception  arises  from  a 
want  of  the  radical  fulness  in  that  initial  tonic.     Should  the 
article  be  pronounced  short  and  separately,  that  the  initial  tonic 
of  the  word  may  have  a  full  radical  opening  after  the  pause,  the 
unpleasent  effect  will  be  avoided,  though  the  utterance  will  be 
necessarily  slower.     In  this  way,  a, — oivl  and  a,  —  age  are  as 
unexceptionable,  as  an  owl  and  an  age.    The  union  of  n  with 
a  tonic,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  all  the  subtonics,  is  an  agree- 
able coalescence,  from  the  slight  occlusion  in  these  elements : 
while  an  attempt  to  join  the  vanish  of  one  tonic  with  the  radical 
of  another,  produces  a  disagreeable  effort  in  the  organs,  and  an 
unpleasant  impression  on  the  ear.     This  hiatus,  as  it  is  termed, 
is  caused  by  a  deficiency  in  the  fulness  of  the  radical ;  by  an 
endeavor  to  supply  this  deficiency,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  to 
pass  quickly  from  tonic  to  tonic;  and  by  the  disappointment  of 
the  ear,  in  not  receiving  the  impression  of  the  element,  as  it  is 
heard  in  the  same  word  on  other  occasions.     We  cannot  then,  in 
a  continuous  course  of  tonic  utterance,  produce  that  desirable 
radical  abruptness,  which  is  easily  accomplished  when  the  tonics 
are  pronounced  with  a  pause  between  them,  or  after  the  slight 
natural  pauses  or  occlusions  of  the  subtonics. 


OF  SYLLABICATION.  105 

The  hiatus  accompanying  the  junction  of  one  tonic  with 
another,  will  be  less  remarkable  when  the  last  receives  no  accen- 
tual stress.  Thus  it  is  less  in  a  account  than  in  a  accident :  for 
in  the  first  example,  a  full  degree  of  radical  abruptness  in  the 
tonic  a  is  not  required. 

Through  the  syllabic  agency  of  the  radical  and  vanish,  the 
passed  time  and  perfect  participle  of  some  verbs  ending  in  edj 
when  contracted  into  one  syllable,  by  rejecting  the  tonic  e, 
change  d  into  t,  as:  snatch-ed,  snatch' t;  pass-ed,  pass't; 
stopp't;  clieclct.  For  if  the  e  be  dropped,  the  ^  having  a  vocal- 
ity,  and  possessing  as  a  subtonic  the  power  of  a  concrete  move- 
ment, it  must,  when  preceded  by  an  abrupt  or  atonic  element,  as 
sA,  s,  p,  and  k,  in  the  above  instances,  have  a  radical  and  van- 
ish, and  consequently  must  make  another,  though  a  mere  subtonic 
syllable,  in  place  of  ed.  But  if  the  abrupt  atonic  t  is  substituted 
for  d,  that  element  having  no  concrete,  may  by  uniting  with 
those  that  precede,  be  retained  without  destroying  the  singleness 
of  the  syllabic  impulse.  It  is  however,  to  be  remarked  here, 
that  the  vocule  of  t  has  a  '  formative  effort'  towards  a  syllable, 
but  not  sufficient  to  produce  the  effect  of  one,  on  the  ear. 

Those  irregular  verbs  which,  by  contraction,  have  their  pre- 
sent and  past  times  and  perfect  participle  alike,  generally  end 
in  t,  as :  beat,  kept,  hurt,  let,  left.  The  economy  of  utter- 
ance or  the  occasions  of  poetical  measure,  producing  a  con- 
traction of  the  regular  analogical  form  of  heat  heated  heated, 
which  we  may  suppose  to  have  been  the  original  structure  of  the 
verb,  the  influence  of  the  radical  and  vanish  in  syllabication, 
does  not  allow  the  contraction  to  be  made  by  the  mere  elision  of 
e.  For  upon  this  elision,  heated,  can  be  changed  to  one  syllable, 
as  we  have  seen  above,  only  by  substituting  the  atonic  t  for 
the  subtonic  d,  as  in  heafi;  and  this  being  so  awkwardly  uttera- 
ble,  the  single  word  without  the  last  t,  would  be  used  as  the 
inflection  of  the  verb,  and  as  the  participle. 

We  might  still  further  apply  the  foregoing  principles  in  th& 
explanation  of  some  apparent  anomalies  in  speech,  that  have 
hitherto  passed  without  scrutiny  or  without  satisfactory  interpre- 
tation.    But  I  have  already  exceeded  my  original  intention,  in 


106  THE  MECHANISM 

planning  the  subject  of  this  section ;  and  must  therefore  leave 
other  particulars,  to  the  observation,  reflection,  and  time  of  the 
reader.  Perhaps  I  do  not  exceed  the  bounds  of  reasonable 
anticipation  in  foreseeing  his  rising  interest  in  this  history  of  the 
voice.  But  all  these  things,  and  more  too  that  shall  be  told, 
may  at  some  future  time,  seem  to  be  no  more  than  the  preface 
to  a  full  knowledge  of  this  subject, —  if  he  "will  adopt  the 
Method  of  Inquiry  which  has  thus  far  assisted  me ;  or  which  is 
in  truth,  the  more  than  co-efficient  Author  of  this  work :  if  he 
will  become  the  spy  upon  natui-e,  through  his  own  watchful- 
ness, and  not  rely  on  a  careless,  and  often  itself  a  borrowed 
authority :  if  he  will  turn  from  those  discouraging  prospects, 
presented  by  the  result  of  every  metaphysical  or  transcendental 
attempt  to  make  knowledge  out  of  notions ;  and  by  entering 
into  sober  communion  with  his  own  senses,  lay  himself  open  to 
the  advising  of  those  five  ministers  of  observation,  appointed  by 
nature  for  his  counseling  in  all  inquiry  after  truth. 


SECTION  V. 

Of  the  Causative  Mechanism  of  the    Voice,  in  relation  to  its 
different  Qualities. 

A  DESCRIPTION  of  the  different  modes  and  forms  of  sound  in 
the  human  voice,  without  an  exemplification  by  actual  utterance, 
is  always  insufficient  and  often  unintelligible.  With  a  view  to 
facilitate  instruction,  it  is  desirable  to  discover  the  mechanical 
movements  of  the  organs,  together  with  the  action  of  the  air 
upon  them ;  that  a  reference  to  conformations  and  changes  of 
the  organs,  and  to  the  impulses  of   the  air,  may  enable   an 


OF  THE  VOICE.  107 

observer  to  exemplify  to  himself,  the  description  of  vocal  sounds, 
by  using  the  known  physical  means  which  produce  them. 

The  result  of  physiological  inquiry  on  this  subject  is  not  satis- 
factorj'.  Unfortunately,  most  physiologists  have  been  public 
teachers,  appointed  to  stations  of  profit,  and  influence,  and 
induced  by  the  obligations  of  their  office,  to  instruct,  without 
having  the  time,  or  ability,  or  disposition  to  investigate.  Their 
condition  has  obliged  them  to  compile"  without  choice,  to  define 
and  arrange  without  reflection,  and  to  aff'ect  an  originality  per- 
haps forbidden  by  the  frame  of  their  minds,  or  the  multiplicity 
of  their  duties.  From  these  professorial  instructors,  the  covered 
movements  of  the  organs  of  speech,  seem  to  cut  off  the  means 
of  observation  ;  and  while  they  have  feigned  themselves  under  a 
necessity  to  teach  what  they  had  never  learned,  or  understood, 
they  have  endeavored  to  elude  the  difficulty,  by  framing  s(5me  of 
those  works  of  fancy,  long  ago  designed  by  the  craft  of  master- 
ship, for  satisfying  the  cravings  of  undiscerning  youth.  The 
puerile  wishes  of  the  scholar  have  been  respectfully  regarded  by 
the  teacher ;  and  knowledge  under  his  hands,  has  frequently 
been  rather  a  picture  of  the  pupil's  anticipations,  than  the 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  of  nature. 

There  are  few  confirmed  opinions  among  physiologists,  on  the 
mechanism  of  the  voice ;  and  by  the  duties  of  philosophy,  we 
are  bound  to  acknowledge  much  ignorance  and  error  on  this 
subject.  We  know  that  the  voice  is  made  by  the  passage  of  air 
through  the  larynx,  and  cavities  of  the  mouth  and  nose.  From 
experiments  on  the  human  larynx;  on  artificial  imitations  of  its 
structure ;  and  from  observations  upon  the  vocal  function  of 
dogs,  by  exposing  the  organs  in  the  living  animal,  it  is  inferred 
with  great  probability,  that  the  production  of  voice  is  connected 
with  the  ligaments  of  the  glottis.  We  have  no  precise  know- 
ledge of  the  causes  of  Pitch ;  its  formation  having  been  by 
authors  diff'erently  attributed  —  to  the  variation  of  the  aperture 
of  the  glottis, —  the  difl"erence  of  length  in  its  chords, —  their 
varied  degrees  of  tension, —  the  varying  velocity  of  the  current 
of  air  through  the  aperture  of  the  glottis, —  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  whole  larynx  and  the  consequent  variation  of  length  in  the 


y 


1 


108  THE  MECHANISM 

vocal  avenues,  between  the  glottis  and  the  external  limit  of  the 
mouth  and  of  the  nose,  —  and  finally,  to  the  influence  of  a  union 
of  two  or  more  of  these  causes.  Nor  are  we  acquainted  with 
the  mechanisms,  respectively  producing  those  varieties  of  sound 
called  Natural  voice.  Whisper,  and  Falsetto.  Each  of  these 
varieties  has  received  some  theoretic  explanation ;  and  their 
locality  has,  without  much  precision,  been  severally  assigned  to 
the  chest,  throat  and  head. 

These  discordant  and  fictional  accounts  have  been  in  some 

measure,  the  consequence  of  conceiting  a  resemblance,  between 

the  organs  of  the  voice,  and  common  instruments  of  music  ;  and 

while  those  fluctuations  of   opinion,  which  of   themselves,   so 

rarely  settle  into  truth,  have  represented  the  vocal  mechanism 

to  be  like  that  of  mouthed,  or  reeded,  or  stringed  instruments, 

the  spirit  of  these  unfounded  or  still  incomplete  analogies  has 

been  carried  to  the  outrage  of  all  similitude,  by  comparing  the 

avenue  of  the  fauces,  mouth,  and  nose,  to  the  body  of  a  flute ; 

and  ascribing  false  intonation,  to  an  inequality  of  tension,  between 

what  are  called  the  'strings  of  the  glottis.'     We  are  too  much 

disposed  to  measure  the  resources  of  nature,  by  the  limited 

inventions  of  art.     The  forms  and  other  conditions  of  matter, 

which  jointly  with  the  motion  of  air,  may  produce  sound,  must 

be  innumerable ;  and  it  certainly  is  not  an  enlarged  analogical 

view  of  the  mechanism  of  the  human  voice,  which  regards  only 

the  functions  of  those  few  forms  that  have  received  the  name  of 

'musical  instruments.' 

The  illustrations,  these  analogies  are  supposed  to  afibrd,  are 
no  more  than  resting  places  for  the  mind  in  the  perplexed  pur- 
suit of  truth.  The  physiologists  of  antiquity  thought  they 
explained  the  mysteries  of  the  voice  when  they  compared  the 
trachea  to  a  flute ;  and  science  reposed  from  the  time  of  Galen, 
to  that  of  Dodart  and  Ferrein  in  the  eighteenth  century,  on  the 
satisfaction  produced  by  this  fancy.  The  means  of  illustration 
have  followed  the  fashion  of  instruments,  and  of  late  years,  the 
chords  of  the  seolian  harp  and  the  reed  of  the  hautboy,  have 
furnished  their  mechanical  pictures  of  the  vocal  organs.  One  can- 
not say  positively, —  a  resemblance   of  the  mechanism  of  the 


OF  THE  VOICE.  109 

voice,  to  some  known  instrument  of  music,  may  not  be  proved 
hereafter ;  but  cautious  reflection  will  guard  us  against  surprise 
on  a  future  discovery,  that  in  most  points,  the  formative  causes, 
in  the  two  cases,  are  totally  dissimilar.  Before  the  use  of  the 
balloon  for  the  support  and  progress  of  man  upon  the  air,  no 
one  ever  imagined  the  possibility  of  his  flight,  by  any  other 
instrumentality  than  that  of  wings. 

The  history  of  the  voice  consists  of  some  due  experiment  and 
observation,  and  of  inferences  from  the  principles  of  musical 
instruments,  applied  without  much  precision  to  the  human 
organs.  We  seem  to  have  been  so  entirely  convinced  of  the 
analogy  between  these  cases,  and  have  relied  so  implicitly  on 
systems  constructed  upon  it,  that  we  have  forgotten  the  import- 
ance of  unbiased  observation.  Presumption  in  fancying  know- 
ledge completed,  and  despair  in  thinking  it  unattainable,  are 
equally  adverse  to  the  efl"orts  of  improvement.  The  pure  and 
pervading  spirit  of  Baconian  Science,  directs  us  by  itg  productive 
rules,  to  record  all  the  phenomena  of  the  voice ;  and  requires  us 
in  our  classifications,  to  know  resemblances  and  difl'erences,  not 
merely  to  imao-ine  them.  There  is  no  doing  without  the  assist- 
ance  of  analogies,  as  well,  when  looking  into  the  co-relation  of 
the  arts,  as  in  observing  the  processes  of  nature.  With  peculiar 
adaptation  to  a  varied  ofiice,  they  are  the  all-suggestive  counselors 
of  intellect,  in  the  discovery  of  that  original  truth,  which  they 
afterwards  both  beautify  and  teach  by  illustration ;  but  they 
should  never  be  confounded  with  the  truth  itself,  which  they 
merely  serve  to  develope  and  adorn.  In  the  present  inquiry, 
it  might  be  proper  to  take  into  consideration  every  analogy  of 
form,  in  artificial  instruments  of  sound ;  but  when  a  strict  use 
of  the  senses  cannot  prove  a  similarity  of  function  between 
them  and  the  vocal  organs,  it  is  no  benefit  to  retain  as  parts 
of  a  science,  those  fancied  means  that  cannot  illustrate,  after 
they  have  been  unsuccessfully  used  to  discover  its  truth.* 

*After  the  directive  principles  of  the  Xovum  Orffanumh^d  accomplished  much 
of  the  promised  work  of  scientific  precision  ;  and  before  they  have  been  duly 
applied  to  rectify  the  errors  of  Theoretic  Faith,  for  which  they  were  prospec- 
tively intended ;  we  are  invited  to  new  efforts  of  inquiry,  by  the   additional 


110  THE  MECHANISM 

When  I  speak  of  our  ignorance  of  tliemeclianical  causes  of  the 
different  kinds  of  voice,  and  of  their  pitch,  let  me  be  clearly 
understood.  To  know  a  thing,  as  this  phrase  is  applied  in  most 
of  the  subjects  of  human  inquiry,  is  to  have  that  opinion  of  its 
nature,  which  authority,  analogical  argument,  and  partial  obser- 
vation, prompted  by  various  motives  of  vanity  or  interest,  may 
suggest.  To  knoiv,  in  natural  philosophy,  vre  must  employ  our 
senses,  and  contrive  experiments,  on  the  subject  of  inquiry ; 
and  admit  no  belief,  which  may  not  at  anytime  be  made  undeniable 
by  demonstration.  Physiology  has  too  long  been  led  by  a 
fictional  logic :  and  no  branch  more  conspicuously  than  that  of 
the  mechanism  of  the  human  voice.  One,  from  the  analogy  of 
musical  strings,  assumes  that  Pitch  is  produced  by  the  varied 
tension  of  the  chords  of  the  glottis ;  without  showing  a  corres- 
pondence of   the  degrees  of  tension  with  the  degrees  of  pitch. 

method  of  a  '  Positive  Philosophy,'  to  assist  the  progressive  piirpose  of  its  all-suffi- 
cient prototype.  But  English  and  American  philosophy  has  too  often.been  de- 
luded into  belief  of  fiction  and  falsehood,  under  the  promise  of  Positive  science, 
for  this  Word  to  afford,  in  our  common  language,  a  favorable  omen  of  exactness 
in  observation  and  thought.  Nor  has  the  flag  that  bears  it,  as  yet  -waved  over 
any  important  '  annexation'  of  truth,  beyond  the  acquisitions  of  that  Command- 
ing Philosophy,  which  has  gone  the  way  of  victory  before  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Baconian  system  of  observation  has  long  bung  its  banner  of  science, 
across  the  Newtonian  Sky ;  and  is  daily  bringing  from  the  depths  of  the  earth, 
the  historic  leaves  of  Creation's  Stone-and-Fossil  Book  ;  has  raised  its  trophies 
of  ingenious  art,  and  national  wealth,  over  the  coal-fields  of  New-Castle,  the 
founderies  of  Wales,  the  thousand  productive  engines  of  Sheffield  and  Jlanches- 
ter,  the  wonders  of  locomotive-agency,  on  every  sea  and  civilized  land,  and  over 
that  Electric  tongue,  which  speaks  in  a  moment,  the  exchanging  purposes  of 
commerce,  between  them  all.  The  spirit  of  this  philosophy,  while  it  has  already 
furnished  those  great  physical  advantages,  still  holds  within  itself,  the  sure  but 
unused  means  of  clearing-up  every  intellectual  and  moral  mystification. 

To  those  great  results  of  the  boundless  purposes  of  the  Observative  System,  I 
presume  to  join  the  humble  contribution  of  this  essay.  The  success  of  that 
system,  on  a  subject  which  has  so  long  resisted  all  other  means  of  inquiry,  and 
which  has  too  incautiously  been  considered,  beyond  discrimination,  may  indeed  be 
only  a  triumph  within  the  narrow  field  of  Vocal  Physiology,  and  Taste  ;  yet  poorly 
as  it  may  compare  with  those  extended  practical  achievements,  it  is  equally  with 
them,  a  triumph,  in  principle  and  method,  of  the  wise  and  comprehensive  de- 
.sign  of  the  Baconian  Logic,  which,  like  the  unlimited  circuit  of  Nature,  thus 
takes-in  both  the  greatest  and  the  least. 


OF  THE  VOICE.  HI 

Another  that  the  vibration  of  these  chords  performs  the  same 
functions  as  the  reed  of  the  hautboy ;  without  showing  the  man- 
ner in  which  this  laryngeal  reed  fixes  the  degrees  of  intonation. 
While  a  third  ascribes  the  pitch  of  the  falsette  to  the  agency  of 
the  base  of  the  tongue,  the  fauces,  the  soft  palate  and  the  uvula ; 
without  showing  any  fixed  points  of  relationship,  between  the 
parts  of  this  cavernous  structure  and  the  current  of  expiration, 
in  the  production  of  concrete  or  discrete  pitch. 

AYhen  therefore  we  seek  to  hxtoio  the  mechanism  of  the  voice, 
it  should  be  to  see,  or  to  be  truly  told,  by  tliose  who  have  seen, 
the  whole  process  of  the  action  of  the  air  on  the  vocal  organs, 
in  the  production  of  the  quality,  force,  pitch,  and  articulation  of 
speech.  This  method,  and  this  alone,  produces  permanent 
knowledsre ;  and  elevates  our  belief  above  the  condition  of 
vulgar  opinion  and  sectarian  dispute.  The  visibility  of  most  of 
the  parts  concerned  in  Articulation,  has  long  since  produced 
among  physiologists,  some  agreement  as  to  the  agency  of  those 
parts.  But  after  all  I  have  been  able  to  observe  and  learn,  on 
the  subject  of  Quality  and  Pitch,  I  must  in  speaking  the  language 
of  an  exact  philosophy,  fairly  confess  an  entire  ignorance  of  their 
mechanical  causations :  and  the  great  difi'erence  on  this  point 
among  authors,  has  never  impressed  me  with  much  respect 
towards  their  opinions.* 

As  this  section  is  addressed  principally  to  physiologists,  I  omit 
a  description  of  the  organs  of  the  voice,  since  it  may  be  found  in 
all  the  manuals  of  anatomy ;  and  it  would  be  useless  to  transcribe 
an  account  of  structures  and  actions,  when  we  know  not  with 
specific  reference,  what  vocal  effect  those  actions  produce.  The 
general  statement  of  our  problem  is,  that  some  part  or  parts  of 
the  vocal  passages  produce  all  the  phenonjena  of  the  voice.  Now 
when  discovery  shall  point  out  the  efficient  parts,  and  their  ac- 
tions, then  it  will  be  the  duty  of  anatomy  to  describe  their  in- 
ternal organization,  and  motive  powers,  that  the  whole  may  be 
made  a  permanent  subject  of  science.     The  anatomical  structure 

*  If  the  reader  cannot  now  agree  with  me,  on  the  importance  of  the  purely 
observative  use  of  the  mind,  here  recommended,  let  him  wait  till  he  has  finished 
this  volume,  before  he  pronounces  that  it  has  been  therein  unproductive. 


112  THE  MECHANISM 

of  a  part,  is  the  material  cause,  and  thus  the  foundation  of  its 
physiology ;  but  observation  of  the  living  function  has  almost 
universally  thrown  the  first  light  upon  the  formative  causes  of  its 
constituent  details.  It  has  been  the  part  of  anatomy  to  confirm 
or  complete  our  knowledge  of  them ;  agreeably  to  the  saying  of  the 
Greek  philosophy,  that  what  is  first  to  natm-e  in  the  act  of  crea- 
tion, is  the  last  to  man  in  the  labor  of  inquiry.  With  regard  to 
the  mechanism  of  the  voice,  we  are  yet  occupied  with  the  per- 
plexities of  analysis ;  when  that .  work  shall  be  finished,  we  may 
begin  again  with  muscles,  cartilages,  ligaments,  mucous  tissues, 
and  the  os  hyoides,  and  describe  the  whole  with  the  synthetic 
steps  of  successive  causation. 

In  the  meantime,  we  should  not  so  far  follow  the  example  of 
system-makers  and  professors,  as  to  furnish  an  account  of  the 
mechanism  of  the  voice,  solely  because  it  is  desirable  and  may 
be  looked  for.  Aiming  to  serve  truth  with  our  senses,  we  should 
describe  what  is  distinguishable  by  the  ear,  in  the  difi'erent  kinds 
of  voice,  together  with  the  visible  structure  and  movement  of  the 
organs ;  in  the  hope,  that  by  an  acknowledgment  of  our  present 
ignorance,  and  by  future  observation  and  experiment,  other  in- 
quirers may  arrive  at  the  certainty  which  through  a  different 
method  of  investigation  has  never  yet  been  reached. 

The  thirty-five  elements  of  speech  may  be  heard  under  four 
difi'erent  kinds  of  voice ;  the  Natural,  the  Falsetto,  the  Whis- 
pering, and  that  improved  quality,  to  be  presently  described 
under  the  name  of  the  Orotund. 

The  Natural  is  employed  in  ordinary  speaking.  Its  compass 
includes  a  range  of  pitch  from  the  lowest  utterable  sound,  up  to 
that  point  at  which  the  voice  is  said  to  break.  At  this  place  the 
natural  voice  ceases,  and  the  higher  parts  of  the  scale  are  made 
by  a  shriller  kind  called  the  Falsetto.  The  natural  voice  is 
capable  of  the  discrete,  the  concrete,  and  the  tremulous  progres- 
sion. By  the  concrete  and  tremulous  movement,  the  natural 
may  be  continued  into  the  falsette,  without  a  perceptible  point 
of  union.  Thus  the  concrete  rise,  in  vehement  interrogation, 
sometimes  passes  far  above  the  limit  of  the  natural  scale,  without 
producing  that  unpleasant  break  in  the  transition  to  the  falsette, 


OF  THE  VOICE.  113 

which  in  the  discrete  scale  is  remarkable  both  as  to  quality  of 
sound,  and  to  difficulty  in  executive  effort,  except  with  persons 
of  great  vocal  skill.  The  peculiarity  of  sound  and  intonation  at 
this  point  of  the  discrete  scale,  has  received  the  name  of  '  false 
note.' 

The  natural  voice  is  said  to  be  produced  by  the  vibration  of 
the  chords  of  the  glottis.  This  has  been  inferred,  from  a  sup- 
posed analogy  between  the  action  of  the  human  organ  and  that 
of  the  dog,  —  in  which  the  vibration  has  been  observed,  on  expo- 
sure of  the  glottis  during  the  cries  of  the  animal,  —  and  from 
the  vibration  of  the  chords,  by  blowing  through  the  human 
larynx,  when  removed  from  the  body.  The  conclusion  is  there- 
fore probable,  but  until  it  is  seen  in  the  living  function  of  the 
part,  or  until  there  is  sufficient  approximation  to  this  proof  by 
other  means,  it  cannot  be  admitted  as  a  portion  of  exact  physio- 
logical science. 

With  regard  to  the  mechanical  cause  of  the  Variations  of  Pitch 
in  the  natural  voice,  different  notions,  and  they  are  but  notions, 
have  been  proposed  by  their  respective  advocates.  They  were 
transiently  enumerated  above.* 

*  Shortly  after  tlie  first  publication  of  this  work,  in  January,  eighteen  hun- 
dred and  twenty-seven ;  Mr.  Robert  Willis,  of  Caius  College,  Cambridge,  following 
up  the  experiments  of  Kratzenstein  and  Kempelen,  obtained  by  means  of  tubular 
and  other  ingenious  contrivances,  many  interesting  results,  approaching  to  the 
satisfactory  conclusion,  that  vocal  sound  is  produced,  on  the  principle  of  the  Reed, 
by  the  vibration  of  the  ligamentous  chords  of  the  glottis.  The  artificial  contri- 
vances fui'thcr  showed  by  analogy,  that  Pitch  may  be  in  part,  produced  by  cer- 
tain variations  of  these  chords,  as  they  form  the  apperture  of  the  glottis :  but 
still  leaving  it  undetermined,  by  what  other  influence  this  pitch  may  be  partly 
made  or  modified,  in  the  proper  vocal  organ.  By  another  contrivance,  he  was 
enabled  to  produce  several  of  the  vowel  sounds. 

The  purpose  of  this  essay  does  not  require  a  special  notice  of  the  interesting 
details  of  Mr.  Willis'  inquiry.  They  do  not  however,  in  point  of  precise  and  per- 
manent knowledge,  extend  the  subject  much  beyond  what  we  have  stated  in  the 
text,  to  be  the  opinions  of  other  writers  ;  and  it  is  there  said  in  caution,  — we 
must  not  suppose  the  mechanism  of  the  voice  necessarily  resembles  that  of  cer- 
tain instruments  of  music  :  for  to  be  known  perfectly,  it  must  be  known  in  itself. 

It  is  but  a  partial  view,  to  show  that  vowel  sounds,  may  be  made  by  certain 
kinds  of  tubes,  in  connection  with  a  reed,  and  a  bowl  with  a  sliding  cover.  Con- 
sonants as  well  as  vowels  are  only  different  kinds  of  sound,  that  may  be  classed, 


114  THE  MECHANISM 

On  this  subject,  about  which  we  know  so  little,  but  on  which 
theorists  are  ready  to  fix  on  anything,  it  is  well  to  begin  the 
investigation  with  the  logical  process  of  exclusion ;  by  showing 
what  does  not  produce  pitch,  in  the  visible  parts  of  the  vocal 
apparatus. 

The  Pitch  of  the  natural  voice  does  not  appear  to  be  at  all 
connected  with  the  function  of  the  mouth  and  fauces,  for  it  will 
be  seen  on  examination,  that  the  rise  and  fall  through  the  scale, 
may  be  severally  efiiected  on  all  the  tonic  elements ;  and  that 
during  the  exclusive  intonation  of  each,  the  positions  of  the 
tongue  and  fauces  remains  unaltered,  if  we  except  some  slight 
unsteadiness  of  the  tongue  and  soft  palate,  which  can  have  no 
relation  to  the  definite  divisions  of  pitch. 

The  sound  of  a-we  is  made,  while  the  tongue  is  about  on 
a  level  with  the  lower  teeth  ;  the  mouth  being  open,  for  obser- 
vation, and  all  the  parts  of  this  vocal  cavity  having  the  same 
position,  as  in  an  act  of  silent  respiration.  In  performing  the 
run  of  pitch  on  this  element,  we  must  however,  have  regard  to 
the  change  of  position,  produced  in  the  articulation  of  its  vanish 
e-rr.  The  sound  of  e-ve  is  made  by  approximating  the  tongue 
to  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  leaving  between  them  a  narrow  pas- 
sage for  the  air.     Now  in  one  of  these  instances,  the  avenue  of 

according  to  their  causes,  as  Human,  Common  Animal,  and  Mechanical.  The 
human  are  few,  the  common  animal,  and  mechanical,  innumerable.  Our  associa- 
tion of  the  human  Yowels  with  alphabetic  characters,  in  their  single  state ;  and 
■with  thoughts  and  feelings,  in  their  combination  into  words,  seems  to  represent 
them  as  altogether  diflFerent  from  animal  and  mechanical  sounds.  But  there  is 
no  vowel  in  the  voice  of  man,  that  is  not  to  be  heard  from  some  beast,  or  bird, 
or  insect,  or  in  the  innumerable  sounds  and  noises,  made  by  the  reciprocal  ac- 
tion between  air,  and  the  varied  forms  and  conditions  of  solids  and  fluids.  The 
fauces  and  larynx  merely  offer  the  case  of  a  peculiar  and  moistened  structure, 
forming  those  sounds,  which  in  the  egotism  of  our  nature,  we  have  so  far  identi- 
fied with  our  peculiar  existence,  as  to  prevent  our  immediate  notice  of  similar 
animal  and  mechanical  sounds. 

The  common  words  of  the  world  veil  the  true  relationship  of  things,  till  phi- 
losophy draws  aside  the  curtain  ;  and  nine-tenths  of  mankind,  who  may  think 
themselves  very  observant,  never  perceive  in  the  jet  of  a  fountain,  the  click  of  a 
time-piece,  the  grating  of  a  saw,  and  the  rapid  friction  of  a  cable,  some  of  those 
prerogative  elements,  which  set  them  as  they  suppose,  so  far  above  the  brute. 


OF  THE  VOICE.  115 

the  mouth  and  fauces  is  free ;  while  in  the  other,  the  tongue 
ahnost  closes  the  hack  of  the  mouth,  and  must  be  nearly  in 
contact  with  the  veil  of  the  palate  and  the  arch  of  the  fauces. 
But  in  each  case  the  respective  positions  remain  unaltered, 
throughout  the  variations  of  pitch ;  and  in  both  cases  the  pitch 
is  made  with  equal  facility  and  exactness. 

Among  the  subtonics,  the  pitch  of  ng  is  made  when  the  cur- 
rent of  air  through  the  mouth  is  completely  obstructed,  by 
contact  of  the  base  of  the  tongue  with  the  soft  palate.  Th-en, 
on  the  other  hand,  may  be  intonated  through  the  scale,  although 
it  is  produced  by  the  stream  of  expiration  over  the  tip  of  the 
tongue,  when  in  contact  with  the  upper  fore-teeth. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  refer  to  the  visible  positions  of  the  mouth 
and  fauces  in  the  production  of  other  elements.  The  identity 
of  pitch,  under  all  their  various  mechanisms,  must  lead  to  the 
conclusion,  that  the  Pitch  of  the  natural  voice  is  not  produced 
by  the  mechanism  of  the  mouth  and  fauces. 

Now  as  the  pitch  of  the  element  ng,  is  made  by  the  stream 
of  air  passing  directly  from  the  glottis  through  the  nose,  and 
consequently  without  its  coming  into  contact  with  the  arch  of 
the  fauces  or  the  cavity  of  the  mouth,  we  may  inquire,  whether 
the  varieties  of  pitch,  if  produced  above  the  glottis  at  all,  are 
made  in  the  avenue  of  the  nose.  But  pitch  may  be  made  when 
the  air  does  not  pass  through  the  nose.  Pitch  too  is  a  variable 
function,  while  the  parts  within  the  nose  are  incapable  of  motion. 

The  Falsetto  is  that  peculiar  voice,  made  in  the  higher  degrees 
of  pitch,  after  the  natural  voice  breaks,  or  outruns  its  power. 
The  piercing  cry,  the  scream,  and  the  yell  are  various  forms  of 
the  falsetto.  But  it  must  not  be  understood  that  the  compass 
of  the  falsetto  lies  restrictively,  between  the  point  where  the 
natural  voice  ends,  and  its  own  highest  practicable  note :  for 
the  same  kind  of  falsetto  sound  may,  by  effort,  be  formed,  even 
below  the  usual  point  of  transition  between  the  two  voices,  or 
that  point,  where  what  is  called  the  'false  note,'  is  made. 

All  the  elements  except  the  atonies,  which  are  only  aspira- 
tions, may  be  made  in  falsetto.  It  has  been  already  remarked, 
that  the  unpleasant  effect  both  of  sound  and  of  effort,  in  the 


116  THE  MECHANISM 

change  from  natural  to  falsette  intonation,  is  obviated  when 
the  transition  is  made  by  the  concrete,  and  by  the  tremulous 
scales. 

The  striking  diiFerence  in  quality,  between  the  natural  and 
the  falsette  voices,  has  created  the  idea  of  a  difference  in  their 
respective  mechanisms,  not  only  as  regards  the  kind  of  sound, 
but  likewise  its  pitch. 

It  has  been  supposed,  the  falsette  is  produced  at  the  '  upper 
orifice  of  the  larynx,  formed  by  the  summits  of  the  arytenoid 
cartilages  and  the  epiglottis :'  *  and  the  difficulty  of  joining  the 
falsette  to  the  natural  voice,  which  is  thought  to  be  made  by  the 
inferior  ligaments  of  the  glottis,  is  ascribed  to  the  change  o^^ 
mechanism  in  the  transition.  On  this  point  I  have  only  to  add, 
that  the  falsette  or  a  similar  voice,  but  without  its  acuteness, 
may  be  brought  downward  in  pitch,  nearly  to  the  lowest  degree 
of  the  natural  voice ;  at  least  I  am  able  so  to  reduce  it,  thus 
producing  what  seems  to  be  a  unison,  or  at  least  an  octave  con- 
cord of  the  natural  and  the  falsette.  f  Now  since  the  natural  voice 
may  by  cultivation  be  carried  above  the  point  it  instinctively 
reaches,  it  suggests  the  inquiry  whether  these  voices  have  a 
different  locality  of  mechanism :  regarding  these  additions  to 
the  range  of  pitch,  and  the  difficulty  of  acquiring  a  command 
over  them,  as  according  rather  with  the  idea  of  a  difference  in 
the  mechanical  cause  of  the  two  voices,  than  with  that  of  a  mere 
extension  of  the  powers  of  the  same  organization. 

As  we  are  ignorant  of  the  mechanical  cause  of  the  falsette, 
supposing  it  to  be  different  from  that  of  the  natural  voice,  so 
the  cause  of  its  pitch  is  equally  unknown.  But  fiction  is  ever 
ready  to  supply  the  wants  of  ignorance  :  and  the  peculiarity  of 

*  See  a  summary  of  the  discoveries  and  opinions  of  M.  Dodart,  in  Rees' 
Cyclopedia,  under  the  article,  Voice. 

f  The  quality  of  this  reduced  falsette,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  consisting  of  an  ap- 
parent combination  of  its  peculiar  sound  with  the  natural  voice,  may,  in  a  man- 
ner, be  illustrated  on  the  flageolet,  by  singing  or  rather  by  what  is  called 
'  humming,'  while  blowing  it.  A  similar  sound  is  made  by  joining  a  vocal 
murmur  with  the  shrill  aspiration  of  whistling.  There  is  however  in  both  these 
cases,  more  of  a  buzzing  vibration,  than  is  heard  in  this  reduced  or  hoarse 
falsette. 


OF  THE  VOICE.  117 

tlie  falsette,  suggesting  to  physiologists,  the  idea  of  a  difference 
between  its  mechanism  and  that  of  the  natural  voice,  writers 
have  supposed  the  pitch  of  the  former  is  made  above  the  larynx, 
by  the  hack  parts  of  the  mouth.  It  is  unnecessary  to  give  the 
particulars  of  their  theory,  as  there  seems  to  be  no  other 
foundation  for  it,  than  —  the  idea  of  a  sort  of  antithesis  in 
causation:  since  the  naturjil  voice,  from  which  the  falsette 
differs  so  much,  is  supposed  to  be  made  within  the  larynx :  But 
whatever  may  have  been  the  ground,  we  have  had  on  this  sub- 
ject, a  complete  system  of  physiological  explanation,  when  there 
is  scarcely  fact  enough  to  warrant  a  plausible  conjecture. 

As  we  are  then  ignorant  of  what  is  the  cause  of  the  variations 
of  pitch  in  falsette,  we  may  perhaps  lessen  the  opportunities  for 
supplying  the  place  of  ignorance  by  fiction,  in  showing  what 
it  is  not. 

If  the  cavity  of  the  mouth  be  observed  during  the  exercise 
of  the  falsette  on  the  element  a-we,  very  little  alteration  will  be 
perceived  in  the  positions  of  the  surrounding  parts  :  except  some 
slight  contractile  movement  in  the  uvula,  as  the  pitch  rises,  and 
when  this  is  strained  to  its  highest  degree,  an  almost  total  disap- 
pearance of  the  uvula  within  the  veil  of  the  palate.  That  this 
contraction  of  the  uvula,  in  the  higher  notes  of  falsette,  is  not 
the  sole  cause  of  its  pitch ;  and  that  it  is  not  produced  by  parts 
of  the  vocal  passage  situated  above  the  glottis,  seems  conclusive 
from  the  following  considerations. 

The  elements  n  and  m, — both  being  made  by  the  passage  of 
air  from  the  glottis,  solely  through  the  nose, —  can  be  precisely 
intonated  in  the  falsette  scale.  Now,  in  this  case  the  current 
of  expiration  does  not  pass-by  the  soft  palate,  uvula,  sides  of 
the  fauces  and  base  of  the  tongue, —  parts  of  the  mouth  sup- 
posed to  be  the  cause  of  the  pitch  of  this  voice. 

All  the  tonic  and  subtonic  elements  can  be  made  in  the  falsette. 
But  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  sound,  that  the  iden- 
tical quality  called  falsette,  and  its  pitch,  should  be  made  under 
mechanical  forms  so  varied,  that  the  causative  structure  of  some 
of  the  elements,  as  of  a-we    and   a-n,  give  a  clear  passage  to 


118  THE  MECHANISM  ] 

expiration  thi'ough  the  mouth,  while   that  of  others,  as  e-\e,   I, 
and   r,  nearly  obstruct  it. 

As  the  falsette  may  be  made  by  inspiration  through  the  nose 
"with  a  closed  mouth,  the  air  cannot  come  into  contact  with  the 
parts  of  the  mouth  which  have  been  assigned  as  the  mechanism 
of  the  falsette.  But  further,  if  we  inhale  through  a  tube,  with 
one  end  reaching  beyond  the  soft  palate,  the  falsette  may  be 
carried  through  its  pitch,  thus  formed  by  inspiration :  though 
the  current  of  air  in  this  case  does  not  impress  the  soft  parts  at 
the  back  of  the  mouth,  but  passes  from  the  tube  directly  into 
the  glottis.  And  the  same  is  true  of  expiration,  where  the 
current  passes  directly  from  the  glottis  into  the  tube. 

I  have  at  this  time  a  case  under  professional  treatment,  in 
which  the  tonsils  are  so  enlarged  by  disease,  that  their  near 
approach  to  each  other,  merely  allows  space  for  the  uvula  to 
hang  between  them  :  thus  obstructing  the  passage  of  air  through 
the  mouth,  except  by  an  effort ;  and  presenting  a  structure  alto- 
gether different  from  the  natural  condition,  assigned  as  the  me- 
chanical cause  of  the  falsette.  And  yet  this  individual  is  able 
to  make  the  falsette  intonation. 

I  had  lately  an  opportunity  of  seeing  an  instance  of  malforma- 
tion, where  the  whole  soft  palate  is  wanting.  The  passage  to 
the  throat  being  a  single  arch,  curving  along  the  edge  of  the 
palate  bone,  instead  of  the  low  double  arch,  formed  by  the  soft 
palate  and  depending  uvula,  in  the  perfect  fauces.  Adhering  to 
each  side  of  the  arch,  just  above  the  tonsil,  there  is  a  small  tuber, 
or  fleshy  drop,  seemingly  formed  by  the  curtain  of  the  soft 
palate,  being  divided  vertically  through  the  uvula  to  the  palate- 
bone  ;  and  each  portion  of  the  curtain  being  then  drawn  into  the 
soft  parts  on  its  respective  side,  except  the  drops,  or  semi-uvulas, 
which  project  in  the  manner  and  place  above  described.  This 
is  the  state,  at  rest.  In  straining  the  highest  notes  of  the  falsette, 
the  two  u\'ular  drops,  by  some  peculiar  muscularity,  make  an 
effort  to  approach  each  other  horizontally  across  the  mouth,  and 
thereby  convert  the  semicircular  arch  into  the  form  of  a  horse- 
shoe, by  drawing  inwards,  each  about  half  an  inch,  along  the 
diameter  of  the  arch.     Here  then,   the  principal  part  of  the 


OF  THE  VOICE.  HQ 

apparatus,  said  to  produce  the  falsette,  is  wanting ;  yet  this 
voice  and  its  degrees  of  pitch  are  accurately  executed  by  the 
individual,  notwithstanding  her  deformity. 

The,  back  parts  of  the  mouth  are  in  their  nature  too  variable 
under  the  accidental  influence  of  muscular  eiFort,  to  be  the 
mechanical  cause  of  the  fixed  and  accurate  degrees  of  the  scale. 
For  when  any  one  point  of  pitch  is  maintained,  the  soft  palate 
and  its  appendage  the  uvula,  may  be  seen  to  undergo  involun- 
tary movements,  that  do  not  appear  to  have  any  efiect  on  'the 
voice.  I  am  able  to  make  twenty-four  distinct  notes  with  accu- 
rate intonation ;  fifteen  are  natural  and  nine  falsette.  Now  in 
running  throughthis  compass  on  the  tonic  a-we,  in  which  the 
articulative  mechanism  of  an  open  mouth  and  embedded  tongue, 
allows  the  isthmus  of  the  fauces  to  be  distinctly  seen,  I  perceive 
no  alteration  of  position  in  executing  the  natural  notes,  except 
that  of  the  articulative  change,  when  the  voice  runs  into  e-rr^ 
the  obscure  vanish  of  this  dipthong.  There  is  indeed  an  un- 
steadiness in  the  positions,  but  none  of  that  definite  gradation 
in  organic  changes,  implied  in  the  ascription  of  the  variations 
of  pitch  to  the  motions  of  the  back  part  of  the  mouth.  In 
intonating  the  falsette,  discretely,  I  perceive  some  change  in 
the  palate,  but  little  or  none  in  the  tongue,  if  the  vanish  e-rr 
is  avoided.  The  change  in  the  palate  consists  of  a  convulsive 
action  of  the  uvula,  which  starts-up,  as  the  radical  of  a-we 
opens  on  each  degree  of  the  scale,  and  in  a  moment  descends 
again.  This  convulsive  action  is  not  apparent  when  the  voice 
ascends  by  the  concrete ;  though  under  the  use  of  both  scales, 
the  uvula  at  the  highest  rise  of  the  falsette  is  contracted  almost 
to  obliteration.  That  this  extreme  contraction  is  not  a  move- 
ment especially  productive  of  pitch  in  the  falsette,  I  have 
endeavored  to  show  ;  but  am  not  able  to  say,  whether  it  arises 
from  some  associative  muscular  action,  or  from  some  change  of 
the  articulative  mechanism  in  its  higher  notes. 

I  have  oflered  these  few  remarks,  in  acknowledging  my  igno- 
rance of  the  mechanical  cause  of  the  quality,  and  the  pitch  of 
the  falsette  voice. 


120  THE  MECHANISM 

The  Whispering  voice  is  ■well  known.  It  is  an  aspiration ;  and 
makes  the  short  impulse,  and  the  vocule,  of  the  atonic  elements. 
These  then  are  necessarily  a  whisper.  But  all  the  other  elements 
may  be  made  by  aspiration.  The  whisper  of  J,  d,  and  g, 
though  considered  by  Holder  and  his  followers  as  identical  with 
the  atonies  p,  t,  and  Tc,  is  to  my  ear  at  least,  faintly  distin- 
guishable from  them,  by  having  a  less  easy  outset,  and  by  a 
slight  initial  effort  of  articulation. 

"We  are  not  acquainted  with  the  mechanical  cause  of  whisper, 
as  distinguished  from  vocality.  It  has  been  ascribed  to  the 
operation  of  the  current  of  air  on  the  sides  of  the  glottis,  while 
its  cords  are  at  rest ;  whereas  vocality  is  said  to  proceed  from 
the  agitation  of  the  air  by  the  vibration  of  those  chords.  This 
however  is  merely  an  inference  from  analogy,  and  has  a  claim  to 
possibility,  but  no  more. 

The  whispering  voice  has  its  variation  of  pitch,  but  it  is 
effected  in  a  very  different  manner  from  that  of  the  natural 
and  the  falsetto.  The  intonation  of  these  voices,  as  shown 
above,  is  not  connected  with  the  visible  movements  of  the  mouth, 
tongue,  and  fauces,  that  produce  articulation.  But  if  I  have  not 
been  deceived  in  my  observation,  the  transit  through  the  scale 
of  whisper  is  made  by  taking  different  elements  for  the  succes- 
sive steps  of  the  discrete  movement ;  each  whispered  element 
being  in  itself  incapable  of  variation  in  pitch,  while  its  true 
articulation  remains  unchanged. 

For  the  explanation  of  this  subject,  let  us  designate  three 
forms  of  the  whispering  voice.  The  Articulated,  consisting  .in 
the  pronunciation  of  the  alphabetic  elements ;  the  Whistled,  hav- 
*  ing  the  well-known  shrillness  of  this  function;  and  the  Sufflated, 
merely  a  husky  breath,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  the  two 
former,  without  having  the  shrill  quality  of  one,  or  the  articula- 
tion of  the  other.  Now,  when  in  Articulated  Whisper,  the 
tonics  are  distinctly  pronounced,  without  running  into  the  Suffla- 
tion,  the  changes  of  pitch  are  made  upon  changes  of  the 
elements.  In  the.  order  of  articulated  intonation,  oo-ze  is  the 
lowest  in  the  scale,  and   2-f  the  highest :  the  succession  by  the 


OF  THE  VOICE.  121 

first,    third,   and   fifth,  through   two  octaves,  being  upon   the 
seven  following  elements. 

First  Octave.  Second  Octave. 


T  3  5  "^l"  3  5  s"" 

oo-ze        a-we        a-rt         e-rr  e-\l         a-le        z-f 


This  scale  of  articulated  whisper  is  of  so  peculiar  a  character, 
that  I  do  not  presume  to  speak  without  doubt  upon  it :  for  such 
a  seeming  anomaly  in  intonation,  leads  me,  under  a  sense  of  the 
uniformity  of  the  laws  of  nature,  to  question  my  own  observa- 
tion ;  and  to  call  for  the  assistance  of  others.  If,  however,  this 
is  the  real  construction  of  the  scale,  for  so  it  appears  to  me,  each 
intermediate  note  must  consist  of  sounds  that  resemble  those 
contiguous  to  it.  Thus  when  we  require  a  second  in  the  progres- 
sion, between  oo-ze  and  a-we,  it  must  partake  of  the  articula- 
tion, of  both  these  elements.  And  of  the  two  sounds  for  the 
sixth  and  the  seventh,  between  a-rt  and  e-rr,  one  will  partake 
more  of  the  articulation  of  a-rt  and  the  other  of  e-n\  But  as 
these  intermediate  sounds  are  not  used  in  our  language,  they 
cannot  be  made  without  careful  effort.  Thus,  the  intonation  of 
articulated  whisper,  is  rarely  executed  with  precision,  except  at 
the  points  numbered  in  the  preceding  series ;  since  the  familiar 
elements  of  speech  are  employed  only  at  those  points.* 

*  It  is  necessary  to  remark,  that  a  delicate  ear,  and  a  practical  knowledge  of 
the  scale  are  required  for  measuring  this  progression  of  whispered  articulation. 
The  extent  of  the  series  of  elements  given  in  the  text  being  through  two  octaves, 
the  series  must  begin  on  the  gravest  degree  of  pitch.  I  cannot  on  this  subject, 
draw  from  the  experience  of  others ;  but  in  executing  the  rising  order  of  these 
elements,  I  take  oo-ze  at  the  very  lowest  point,  at  which  the  articulation,  freed 
from  whistle  and  sufflation,  can  be  made,  in  order  to  bring  the  highest  place  of 
t-f,  within  the  reach  of  intonation :  my  voice  being  just  able  to  compass  these 
two  octaves  in  articulated  whisper.  As  a  matter  for  further  investigation  upon 
this  subject,  it  may  not  be  irrelevant  to  remark,  the  coincidence,  in  my  own 
case,  of  the  number  of  degrees  in  the  scale  of  whispered  articulation  with  that 
of  the  natural  voice  :  both  being  about  fifteen. 

Let  me  here  add  a  suggestion,  on  the  ground  that  the  intonation  of  articulated 
whisper  is  as  I  have  observed  it.  Since  the  mechanism  of  the  whispered,  and 
the  vocal  elements  is  the  same ;  and  the  places  of  the  several  whispered  elements 

9 


122  THE  MECHANISM 

The  pitcli  of  the  sufflated  whisper  appears  to  be  made  in  the 
same  manner  as  that  of  the  articulated.  Eor  in  rising  through 
the  scale,  this  sufflation  has  a  husky  resemblance  to  the  whispered 
elements  ;  oo-ze  being  the  lowest,  and  2-f  the  highest.  The  suf- 
flated whisper  is  employed  to  form  the  tune  of  the  Jews-harp. 
It  is  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  articulating  the  intermediate  and 
artificial  elements,  so  to  call  them,  and  consequently  of  intona- 
ting the  entire  scale  of  sufflation,  that  even  a  good  musical  ear, 
is  rarely  able  on  first  trials,  to  hit  accurately,  more  than  the 
third,  fifth,  and  octave,  on  the  scale  of  this  simple  instrument. 

The  pitch  of  whistling  is  also  produced  by  the  same  mechanism ; 
since  in  this  case,  as  well  as  in  that  of  sufflation  and  of  articulation, 
a  thin  rod  passed  into  the  corner  of  the  mouth  by  depressing  the 
tongue,  destroys  the  power  both  of  articulation,  and  of  ascending 
the  scale.  And  further,  there  is  in  the  lowest  and  the  highest 
note  of  whistling,  as  well  as  in  those  of  sufflation,  a  quality  of 
sound,  however  obscure,  resembling  the  articulated  oo-ze  and  z'-f. 
Closing  the  mouth  destroys  not  only  the  articulation  of  whisper 
and  of  the  natural  voice,  but  likewise  the  pitch  of  all  the  forms 
of  whisper :  while  with  the  mouth  closed,  the  whole  scale  may  be 
accurately  hummed  in  the  natural  voice.  The  shrillness  of 
whistling  seems  to  be  made  by  the  aperture  in  the  lips.  On  this 
subject,  it  might  be  worth  inquiry,  whether  the  intonation  of  the 
scale  of  wind  instruments,  is  not  in  some  cases,  altogether  pro- 
duced by  the  pitch  of  the  sufflated  w^hisper  ;  in  others,  by  its  com- 
bination with  the  efiect  of  a  varied  position  of  the  lips,  of  a 
varied  force  of  breath,  and  of  the  varied  ventages  or  stops.  It  is 
well  known,  that  the  first  seven  notes  of  the  key  of  D  on  the 
flute,  and  their  corresponding  octaves,  are  severally,  note  and 
octave,  made  by  the  same  stop.  The  difi"erence  of  pitch  between 
a  note  and  its  octave  in  this  case,  is  produced,  not  by  the  posi- 
tion of  the  lips,  nor  by  the  force  of  breath,  but  by  a  difierence  in 

are  fixed  points  of  the  scale,  a  record  of  these  intonated  articvilations,  might        \m 
lead  to  a  recovery,  if  lost,  of  the  sounds  of  the  vowel-symbols  of  the  natural       ■  i 
voice.     And  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  obvious,  and  describable  mechanism  of 
consonants,  in  the  natural  voice,  would   allow  a  recovery  of  their  phonetic 
character. 


I;* 
OF  THE  VOICE.  123 

pitch  of  the  sufflated  whisper.  It  is  the  same  with  the  notes  of 
the  flageolet  and  clarionet. 

The  subtonic  elements,  when  whispered,  are  individually  inca- 
pable of  the  variations  of  pitch.  Have  they,  like  the  tonics, 
relatively  to  each  other,  different  places  in  the  scale  ? 

In  order  to  perceive  clearly  the  peculiar  character  of  pitch, 
above  described,  we  must,  in  executing  the  articulated  whisper, 
be  careful  to  make  the  elements,  as  it  were,  at  the  back  of  the 
mouth ;  thereby  to  avoid  falling  into  the  sufflation,  and  the  whis- 
tle, that  have  their  formative  cause  nearer  the  lips. 

The  atonies  have  no  variation  of  pitch  in  themselves :  nor  is 
their  relative  place  in  the  scale,  if  they  have  any,  of  the  least 
importance  in  speech. 

The  voice  now  about  to  be  described,  is  not  perhaps  in  its 
mechanism,  different  from  the  natural ;  but  is  rather  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  eminent  degree  of  fulness,  clearness,  and  smooth- 
ness in  quality :  and  this  may  be  either  native  or  acquired. 

The  limited  analysis  and  vague  history  of  speech  by  the  an- 
cients, and  the  further  confusion  of  the  subject  by  commentators 
upon  them,  leave  us  in  doubt  whether  the  Latin  phrase,  '  os  ro- 
tundum,'  —  used  more  expressively  in  its  ablative,  'ore  rotundo,' 
by  Horace,  in  complimenting  Grecian  eloquence,  —  referred  to 
the  construction  of  periods,  the  predominance  or  position  of 
vowels,  or  to  quality  of  voice.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
original  signification  of  the  phrase,  the  English  term  '  roundness 
of  tone,'  specifying,  as  we  may  suppose,  the  kind  or  quality, 
seems  to  have  been  derived  from  it. 

He  who  by  closely  observing  the  human  voice,  in  its  best  in- 
stances on  the  stage,  has  acquired  a  knowledge  of  its  powers  and 
beauties,  may  remember  how  slowly  he  came  to  the  full  percep- 
tion and  relish  of  them.  Nor  will  he  deny,  they  would  have 
earlier  attracted  his  attention,  had  they  been  signalized  by  a 
proper  oratorical  name.  On  the  basis  of  the  Latin  phrase,  I 
have  constructed  the  term  Orotund,  to  designate  both  adjectively 
and  substantively,  that  assemblage  of  eminent  qualities  which 
constitutes  the  highest  character  of  the  speaking  voice. 

By  the  Orotund  voice,  I  mean  a  natural,  or  improved  manner 


124  THE  MECHANISM 

of  uttering  the  elements,  with  a  fulness,  clearness,  strength, 
smoothness,  and  if  I  may  mak6  the  word,  a  sub-sonorous  quality, 
rarely  heard  in  ordinary  speech ;  and  never  found  in  its  highest 
excellence,  except  through  long  and  careful  cultivation. 

By  Fulness  of  voice,  I  mean  a  grave  and  hollow  volume,  re- 
sembling the  hoarseness  of  a  common  cold. 

By  Clearness,  a  freedom  from  nasal  murmur  and  aspiration. 

By  Strength,  a  satisfactory  loudness  or  audibility. 

By  Smoothness,  a  freedom  from  all  reedy  or  guttural  harsh- 
ness. 

By  a  Sub-sonorous   quality,  its    muffled  resemblance  to  the 

resonance  of  certain  musical  instruments. 

I  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  make  such  descriptions  definite, 
without  audible  illustration.  Perhaps  the  best  means  for  instruc- 
tion on  this  subject,  is  to  excite  attention  by  terms;  to  give  the 
sense  of  these  terms,  as  nearly  as  possible,  in  figurative  language, 
and  to  leave  its  recognition  to  the  subsequent  observation  of  the 
learner.  The  same  natural  relationships  that  suggested  the 
metaphor  to  its  inventor,  may  in  due  time  lead  others  to  acknow- 
ledge the  aptness  of  the  illustration.* 

The  mechanical  structure  and  action  that  produce  the  orotund 
are  to  me,  after  much  inquiry,  unknown.  During  its  utterance, 
we  may  perceive  a  motion  and  contraction  of  the  back  parts  of 
the   mouth,    difierent   from   the    action   of   those   parts   under 

*  Reverberations  may  serve  to  furnish  some  idea  of  two  of  the  qualities  of  the 
orotund  voice.  Thus  vaulted  ceilings  and  coved  recesses  often  give  a  sub- 
sonorous  echo ;  and  speaking  with  the  mouth  within  an  empty  vessel  produces  a 
hollow  fulness.  One  of  the  best  instances  I  ever  heard,  of  a  modification  of  the 
human  voice,  into  a  full,  hollow,  and  sub-sonorous,  quality,  was  from  a  boy  who 
had  sportfully  got  into  a  large  copper  alembic. 

It  may  be  worth  thinking  upon,  whether  the  brazen  and  the  earthen  vases,  which 
were  somehow  formed,  and  then  somehow  set  within  the  masonry  of  the  seats  of 
Greek  theatres,  but  of  which  we  know  so  little,  were  not  designed  to  modify  the 
voice,  to  the  sub-sonorous  quality,  and  hollow  fulness  of  the  orotund ;  rather  than 
to  increase  its  force,  or  to  return  a  concord  to  its  pitch.  The  speaking-trumpet 
affords,  though  not  agreeably,  an  illustration  of  the  qualities  above  described : 
and  could  the  bugle  or  the  organ  diapason  be  made  to  articulate,  it  would  show 
the  highest  measure  of  that  fulness  and  sub-sonorous  effect,  which  in  distant 
similarity  constitute  the  character  of  the  orotund  voice. 


I 


OF  THE  VOICE.  125 

the  colloquial  voice.  But  these  indications  of  a  cause  are  so 
slight  and  so  indefinite,  that  they  do  not  at  present  appear  to 
justify  more  than  this  general  notice.  In  our  ignorance  of  the 
mechanism  of  speech,  we  are  not  even  able  to  decide  whether  the 
orotund  is  merely  an  improved  quality  of  the  natural  voice,  or  the 
effect  of  its  own  peculiar  cause.  It  was  said  above,  that  the 
falsetto,  or  something  hoarsely  like  it,  may  be  executed  in  the 
lower  range  of  pitch  of  the  natural  voice.  It  might  therefore  be 
suggested  for  inquiry,  whether  the  cause  of  the  orotund  is  the 
same  as  that  of  the  reduced  falsetto,  or  as  it  may  be  called  the 
Basso-falsette ;  for  this  has  somewhat  of  the  full,  hollow,  and  sub- 
sonorous  effect,  ascribed  to  the  acquired  orotund. 

Connected  with  the  subject  of  that  improved  quality  of  the  sing- 
ing-voice, galled  by  vocalists  '  Pure  Tone,'  there  are  several  terms 
used  to  describe  the  mechanical  causes  of  its  different  character 
and  qualities.  Among  these,  the  causations  implied  by  the  phrases 
'  voce  di  testa,'  and  '  voce  di  petto,'  or  the  voice,  from  the  head, 
and  from  the  chest,  must  be  considered  as  not  yet  manifest  in 
physiology :  and  the  notions  conveyed  by  them,  must  be  hung  up 
beside  those  metaphorical  pictures,  which  with  their  characteristic 
obscurity  or  misrepresentations,  have  been  in  all  ages,  substituted 
for  the  unattainable  delineations  of  the  real  processes  of  nature. 

There  is  a  harsh  quality  of  voice  called  Guttural;  produced  by 
a  vibratory  current  of  the  air,  between  the  sides  of  the  pharynx 
and  the  base  of  the  tongue,  when  apparently  brought  into  contact 
above  the  glottis.  If  then  the  term  '  voice  from  the  throat'  which 
has  been  one  of  the  unmeaning  or  indefinite  designations  of 
vocal  science,  were  applied  to  this  guttural  quality,  it  would 
precisely  assign  a  locality  to  the  mechanism. 

Although  I  have  not  hesitated  to  acknowledge  my  ignorance  of 
the  mechanism  of  the  orotund,  I  know  that  its  function,  wherever 
performed,  may  yet  be  subjected  to  the  will.  And  as  the  best 
and  only  pure  instances  of  this  voice,  are  the  result  of  cultiva- 
tion, I  here  propose  some  elementary  means  by  which  it  may  be 
acquired. 

It  might  seem  to  be  sufficient  for  a  teacher  of  elocution  to 
exemplify  the  or^otlind,  that  his  pupil  might  imitate  it.    Vocalists 


126  THE  MECHANISM 

in  their  lessons  on  Pure  Tone  do  little  more.  But  singing  has 
long  heen  an  Art :  and  its  many  votaries  have  rendered  the 
puhlic  familiar  with  its  leading  principles,  and  accustomed  the 
ear  to  the  peculiarities  of  its  practice.  While  elocution  appears 
to  be  no  more  than  a  brutal  instinct ;  in  vy^hich  some  only  loiv, 
bleat,  bark,  mew,  whinny,  chatter  and  bray  a  little  better  than 
others.  In  describing,  therefore,  without  fhe  opportunity  of 
illustrating,  it  becomes  necessary  to  address  the  pupil,  as  if  he 
had  no  principles  to  help  his  understanding,  nor  exemplified 
sounds  to  satisfy  his  ear.  For  this  purpose,  it  is  necessary  to 
make  him  teach  himself,  by  referring  to  functions  of  the  voice, 
familiar  to  him  both  by  nature  and  name.  When  the  scholastic 
world  shall  understand  our  history  of  the  speaking  voice,  and 
apply  it  to  practice,  men,  in  their  community  of  knowledge, 
will  learn  the  good  things  of  elocution  from  one  another ;  chil- 
dren will  catch  the  proprieties  of  speech  from  well-taught 
parents ;  and  many  a  topic  of  this  work,  which  I  have  labored, 
perhaps  in  vain,  to  make  at  this  time  perspicuous,  may  here- 
after, from  the  unsought  enlightening  of  surrounding  knowledge, 
seem  to  be  perspicuous  in  itself. 

With  due  attention,  we  perceive  two  different  forms  of  respi- 
ration :  one  being  a  continued  stream  of  air  throughout  the 
whole  time  of  expiration;  another  consisting  in  the  issue  of 
breath  by  short  iterated  jets.  The  first  is  that  of  ordinary 
breathing,  panting,  sighing,  groaning,  and  sneezing.  The 
second  is  employed  in  laughter,  crying,  and  speech.* 

By  a  command  over  the  muscles  of  respiration,  the  breath  in 
speaking,  is  frugally  dealt  out  to  successive  syllables,  in  limited 
portions,  appropriate  to  the  time  and  force  of  each ;  thus  guard- 
ing against  the  necessity  of  frequent  inspirations :  while  at  the 
same   time,  these   momentary   pauses,   between   syllables   and 

*  Laughter  and  Crying  ■will  be  particularly  noticed  hereafter. 

Sighing  and  Groaning  are  of  similar  time  :  one  being  an  atonic  or  whispered 
element,  the  other  a  tonic  vocality. 

Sneezing  is  a  rapid  expiration  abruptly  begun  ;  and  generally  producing  one 
of  the  elements. 

I  say  nothing  here  of  the  various  firms  of  inspiration  connected  vrith 
these  acts.  ,  > 


i 


OF  THE  VOICE.  127 

words,  allow  an  abrupt  opening  of  the  radical,  when  required 
for  the  purposes  of  speech. 

The  act  of  Coughing  is  either  a  series  of  short  abrupt  efforts, 
in  expiration  ;  or  one  continued  impulse  which  yields-up  the 
whole  of  the  breath.  Now  the  last,  forms  one  of  the  means  for 
acquiring  the  orotund  voice.  This  single  impulse  of  coughing  is 
an  abrupt  utterance  of  one  of  the  short  tonic  vocalities,  followed 
by  a  continuation  of  the  mere  atonic  breathing  Zi,  till  the  expi- 
ration is  exhausted.  Let  this  compound  function,  consisting  of 
the  exploded  tonic  vocality  and  aspiration,  be  changed  to  an 
entire  vocality,  by  continuing  the  tonic  in  place  of  the  aspira- 
tion. The  sound  thus  produced,  will  with  proper  cultivation, 
make  that  full  and  sub-sonorous  quality,  here  denominated  the 
orotund. 

This  contrived  effort  of  coughing,  when  freed  from  abruptness, 
is  like  the  voice  of  Gaping :  for  this  has  a  hollow  and  sub- 
sonorous  vocality,  very  different  from  the  colloquial  utterance 
of  tonic  sounds.  It  may  be  shown  conspicuously,  by  uttering 
the  tonic  «-we,  with  the  mouth  widely  extended. 

When  the  pupil  can  effect  this  entire  vocality  of  the  artificial 
cough,  if  it  may  be  thus  distinguished  from  the  natural  cough, — 
which  is  part  vocality  and  part  aspiration, — let  him  practice  it 
sufficiently,  yet  avoiding  all  initial  fulness,  and  he  will  not  only 
acquire  facility  in  executing  it,  but  its  clearness  and  smoothness 
will  be  thereby  improved.  Let  the  voice  be  herein  exercised, 
by  rising,  and  falling,  through  the  concrete  scale,  on  each  of 
the  tonic  elements,  drawing  out  the  vocality  to  the  utmost  extent 
of  expiration.  Then  let  trials  be  made  on  the  syllabic  com- 
binations.* 

Being  able  to  execute  the  tonic  elements  and  single  syllables 
in  the  orotund,  the  pupil  is  not  therefore  fully  prepared  to  speak 
continuously  in  it :  and  on  attempting  to  utter  a  sentence  in 
this  voice,  his  natural  manner  returns.     The  cause  of  this  may 

*  This  process  of  forcing  out  the  breath  to  the  seeming  exhaustion  of  the 
lungs,  is  apt  to  produce  giddiness  of  the  head.  Care  should  therefore  be  taken, 
to  avoid  continuing  the  exercise  of  the  voice  too  long  in  this  manner;  and  to 
desist,  for  the  time,  when  that  affection  comes  on. 


128  THE  MECHANISM 

be  understood,  by  recollecting  the  distinction  between  the  two 
kinds  of  expiration.  For  though  he  may  be  able  to  execute  the 
orotund  on  single  syllables,  in  the  continuous  stream  of  vocality, 
he  has  yet  to  learn  the  use  of  that  voice,  with  those  interrupted 
jets  of  expiration,  which  are  essential  to  easy  and  agreeable 
speech.  Continued  practice  however,  with  a  gradual  increase 
of  the  number  of  syllables,  will  bring  his  interrupted  expiration 
in  the  orotund,  under  the  same  command  as  in  common  speech. 

Although  he  may  at  last  have  acquired  the  power  of  uttering 
any  number  of  successive  syllables,  by  interrupted  jets  of  this 
voice,  yet  the  manner  of  their  succession  will  be  monotonous : 
he  will  have  no  power  of  expressive  intonation,  and  will  be 
unable  to  make  the  proper  close  at  the  end  of  a  sentence. 
Repeated  practice  will  give  correctness  and  facility  on  these 
points,  and  the  management  of  the  orotund,  for  the  impressive 
and  elegant  purposes  of  speech  will,  in  time,  be  no  more  diffi- 
cult than  that  of  the  natural  voice. 

The  method  of  acquiring  the  orotund,  is  similar  to  our  in- 
stinctive progress  in  the  use  of  the  natural  voice.  The  first  cries 
of  infants  are  made  on  the  continued  stream  of  vocality.  It  is 
a  long  time  before  they  employ  the  interrupted  expiration.  The 
first  speech  of  the  child  is  by  an  apportionment  of  a  single  sylla- 
ble to  a  breath.  By  a  preparatory  exercise  in  the  interrupted 
jets  of  laughter  and  crying,  the  habit  of  perfect  speech  is 
acquired.  The  same  kind  of  monosyllabic  breath,  employed  in 
infant  articulatio.n,  and  in  acquiring  the  orotund,  occurs  in  the 
debility  of  age,  in  pulmonary  oppression,  and  in  cases  of  pros- 
tration from  disease :  for  here  the  utterance  frequently  consists 
of  but  one,  or  at  most  two  syllables  to  an  act  of  expiration. 
The  condition  is  similar  in  panting  from  violent  exercise :  the 
voluntary  power  over  the  interrupted  jets  of  expiration  being 
therein  lost. 

The  orotund  is  possessed  in  various  degrees  of  excellence  by 
eminent  Actors.  The  state  of  mere  animal  instinct  in  which 
they  have  chosen  to  keep  themselves,  with  regard  to  the  uses  of 
the  voice,  must  convince  us  that  they  can  have  no  systematic 
purpose,  nor  indeed  any  rational  means  for  improving  it.     There 


OF  THE  VOICE.  129 

is,  however,  one  circumstance  in  theatrical  speech,  that  may 
undesignedly  produce  in  time,  the  full  volume  and  suh-sonorous 
quality  of  the  orotund.  I  mean  the  practice  of  vociferating, 
seemingly  required  by  the  extent  of  the  House,  by  the  deaf 
taste  of  the  audience,  and  by  the  poetical  rant  and  bombast  of 
what  are  called  '  stock  acting  tragedies.'  In  addition,  there- 
fore, to  the  previously  described  means  for  acquiring  the  oro- 
tund, I  shall,  in  a  few  words,  point  out  another  method  suggested 
by  the  vehement  efforts  of  dramatic  speech. 

Let  the  reader  make  an  expiration  on  the  interjection  liaJi^ 
in  the  voice  of  whisper,  with  a  widely  extended  mouth,  and  with 
a  duration,  sufficient  to  press  all  the  air  from  the  lungs. 
Then  let  the  whisper  in  this  process  be  changed  to  vocality. 
This  vocality  will  have  the  hoarse  fulness  and  sub-sonorous 
quality  of  the  orotund.  The  forcible  exertion  of  this  kind  of 
voice  constitutes  Vociferation ;  for  vociferation  is  the  utmost 
effort  of  the  natural  voice,  as  the  shriek  or  yell  is  of  the  falsette. 
Actors  who  affect  the  first  rank  in  their  art,  are  often  by  strength 
of  feeling  urged  to  a  degree  of  force,  that  produces  the  mixture 
of  vocality  and  aspiration,  heard  in  the  interjection  hah ;  and 
it  will  be  shown  in  a  future  section,  that  the  junction  of  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  aspiration  with  the  tonic  elements,  is  one  of  the 
means  of  earnest  and  forceful  expression.  The  frequent  occur- 
rence of  exaggerated  sentiments  in  the  drama,  joined  to  the 
effort  required  by  the  dimensions  of  a  Theatre,  produces  the 
habit  of  interjective  expiration,  which  exerted  through  a  wide 
extension  of  the  mouth,  leads  the  speaker  to  the  attainment  of 
the  orotund,  if  his  voice  is  capable  of  it. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  full,  hollow,  and  sub-sonorous 
orotund  is  always  of  the  same  purity.  It  varies  in  its  degrees 
of  strength  and  fulness;  and  is  sometimes  slightly  infected  with 
aspiration,  nasal  murmur,  or  guttural  harshness. 

If  it  should  be  asked,  what  advantage  is  gained  by  the  care 
and  labor  here  enjoined,  for  acquiring  this  improved  quality  of 
the  speaking  voice ;  it  may  be  answered : 

First.  The  mere  sound  is  more  tunable  than  that  of  th,e  com- 
mon voice.     Compared  with  the  full  and  sub-sonorous  character 


i 


130  THE  MECHANISM 

of  a  fine  orotund,  there  are  voices,  with  as  little  even  of  a  hint  of 
music  in  them,  as  the  noise  of  a  hammer  on  a  block.  This  qual- 
ity is  so  impressive  with  its  dignity  of  volume,  that  it  often  catches 
the  ear  and  approbation  of  those  who  are  quite  insensible  to  the 
agency  of  pause,  quantity,  and  intonation.  I  have  known  the 
single  influence  of  an  orotund  voice  give  extensive  fame  to  an 
actor,  who  in  more  essential  points  of  good  reading,  was  even 
below  mediocrity.  It  is  this  quality  which  dignifies  the  other 
excellencies  of  speech.  In  the  voice  of  women  it  is  most  obvious 
and  delisrhtful. 

Second.  The  orotund  is  fuller  in  volume,  and  purer  in  quality 
than  the  common  voice :  and  as  the  latter  gives  a  delicate  atten- 
uation to  the  vanishing  movement,  the  former  with  no  less  appro- 
priate effect,  displays  the  stronger  body  of  the  radical. 

Third.  Its  pure  and  impressive  vocality  gives  distinctness  to 
pronunciation.  For  when  completely  formed,  it  is  free  from  the 
dulness  created  by  nasal  murmur  or  aspiration ;  the  characteristic 
offensiveness  of  which  is  shown  by  their  union  in  Snoring. 

Fourth.  It  has  a  greater  degree  of  articulative  and  expres- 
sive power  than  the  common  voice.  In  this  respect,  it  partakes  of 
the  nature  of  things  perfect  in  their  kind.  The  ear  seems 
filled  with  its  volume,  and  asks  for  no  more.  There  is  too, 
on  the  part  of  the  speaker  himself,  that  conscious  satisfaction 
which  accompanies  the  full  energizing  of  a  function :  for  here 
nature  herself  seems  to  acknowledge,  the  voice  has  done  its 
whole  duty.  Those  who  by  cultivation  of  the  singing-voice,  have 
brought  its  tone  to  the  utmost  extent  of  fulness  and  purity,  will 
admit  the  importance  of  practice  and  perseverance,  in  preparing 
the  voice  for  the  purposes  of  speech.  Compared  with  the  power 
and  facility  of  an  endowed  and  high-taught  vocalist,  mere  in- 
stinctive efforts  in  song  seem  to  be  not  much  removed  from  the 
imbecility  of  paralysis. 

Fifth.  The  orotund,  from  the  discipline  of  cultivation,  is  more 
under  command  than  the  common  voice  :  and  is  consequently 
more  efficient  and  precise  in  the  production  of  long  quantity ;  in 
varying  the  degrees  of  force ;  in  executing  the  tremulous  scale, 
and  in  fulfilling  all  the  other  purposes  of  expressive  intonation. 
Sixth.     It  is  the  only  kind  of  voice  appropriate  to  the  master- 


OF  THE  VOICE.  131 

style  of  epic  and  dramatic  reading.  Through,  it  alone,  the  actor 
consummates  an  outward  sign  of  the  grandeur  and  energy  of  his 
conception.  When  heard  in  what  will  presently  be  called  the  Dia- 
tonic Melody,  the  iEbpressive  authority  and  dignified  elegance  of 
this  voice,  exceed  as  measurably  the  meaner  sounds  of  ordinary 
discourse,  as  the  superlative  pictures  of  the  poet,  and  the  broad 
wisdom  of  the  sage,  respectively  transcend  the  poor  originals  of 
life  and  all  their  wretched  policies.  It  is  the  only  voice  capable 
of  fulfilling  the  solemnity  of  the  Church-service,  and  the  majesty 
of  Shakespeare  and  Milton. 

Finally,  as  the  orotund  does  not  destroy  the  ability  to  use 
at  will,  the  common  voice,  it  may  be  imagined  how  their  con- 
trasted employment  may  add  the  resource  of  vocal  light  and 
shade,  if  we  may  so  speak,  to  the  means  of  oratorical  coloring 
and  design. 

The  mechanism  of  the  Tremulous  movement  of  the  voice  does 
not  appear  to  be  connected  with  the  visible  parts  of  the  fauces  : 
though  there  is  a  gurgling  noise,  somewhat  resembling  it,  pro- 
duced by  a  vibration  of  the  uvula,  when  brought  into  contact 
with  the  base  of  the  tongue,  in  the  expiration  of  the  elements 
e-ve  and  e-rr.  I  leave  it  for  future  observers  to  ascertain, 
whether  the  tremulous  rise  and  fall  may  not  be  referred  to  the 
organic  cause  of  the  variations  of  pitch,  in  the  natural  and 
falsette  voices. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  set  forth  what  we  do  not  knoio  of 
the  mechanism  of  speech.  The  subject  of  the  voice 'is  divided 
into  two  branches.  Anatomy  and  Physiology.  The  first  em- 
braces-a  description  of  the  vocal  organs.  The  second  a  history 
of  the  functions  performed  by  that  organization.  The  anato- 
mical structure  is  recorded  to  the  utmost  visible  minuteness  : 
while  the  history  of  those  audible  functions  which  it  is  the 
design  of  this  work  to  develope, —  and  which,  by  the  strictest 
meaning  of  the  term,  constitute  the  vocal  physiology, — has  in  a 
great  measure  been  disregarded,  under  a  belief  that  these  func- 
tions are  altogether  beyond  the  power  of  human  perception. 

In  overlooking  a  physiological  analysis  of  quality,  force,  and 
pitch  of  vocal  sound,  writers  have  merely  endeavored  to  ascer- 


132  THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH. 

tain  what  parts  of  the  organization  produce  tliese  several  phe- 
nomena ;  and  seem  to  have  almost  restricted  the  name  of  phy- 
siology to  their  vain  and  contradictory  fancies  about  these 
mechanical  causations.  Hence  in  the  oratorical  physiology,  if 
■we  may  so  call  it,  of  the  organs  of  speech,  there  is  little  of  that 
rooted  opinion,  -which  in  most  cultivated  sciences,  contends  with 
an  original  inquirer,  in  every  attempt  to  sacrifice  error  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  "Whereas  the  subject  of  mechanical  causation, 
like  all  other  matters  of  theory,  has  become  doctrinal  and 
divided ;  and  the  inquirer  has  here,  not  only  to  strive  at  reaching 
the  secresy  of  nature,  but  harder  still,  has  to  encounter  the 
obstinacy  of  sectaries,  whose  opinions  have  '"grown  into  pride, 
by  their  unyielding  contentions  with  each  other. 

When  the  reader  has  finished  this  volume,  he  will  perceive 
that  in  this  fifth  section  I  was  somewhat  occupied  in  discussing 
the  notions  of  men ;  while  in  all  the  rest,  I  was  entirely  em- 
ployed in  attempting  to  delineate  the  works  of  nature  :  a  con- 
trast that  may  well  induce  a  lover  of  truth  and  brevity  to 
exclaim, —  Happy  is  he,  who  desiring  to  extend  the  circle  of 
knowledge,  comes  to  a  subject  which  the  fictional  finger  of  the 
school  has  never  touched. 


SECTION  VI. 

Of  the  Expression  of  Speech. 

In  the  preceding  sections,  we  have  explained  the  terms  of  the 
five  modes  of  speech,  with  many  of  their  forms  and  varieties  ; 
have  described  these  modes  and  forms,  as  they  appear  in  the 
radical  and  vanish,   the  alphabetic  elements,  and  in  the  con- 


THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH.  133 

struction  of  syllables :  and  as  far  as  accurately  ascertained, 
have  shown  how  the  Organs  of  the  Voice  mechanically  produce 
the  phenomena  of  these  modes  and  forms.  These  explanations 
and  descriptions  give  a  preparatory  view  of  the  functions  of 
speech ;  and  embrace  all  the  generalities,  required  by  an  intel- 
ligent and  attentive  reader,  in  pursuing  the  subsequent  details 
of  this  work. 

Speech  is  employed  to  declare  the  condition  and  purposes  6f 
the  mind.  These  are  first  known  to  us  as  Ideas  ;  and  ideas 
have  been  divided  into  Thoughts .  and  Feelings.  The  design 
therefore  of  speech  is  to  declare  our  thoughts  and  feelings. 
And  as  we  acknowledge  this  distinction  in  the  conditions  of  the 
mind,  the  voice  must  have  distinct  means  for  declaring  them. 
It  is  therefore  of  great  importance  to  ascertain,  what  are  the 
difibrent  means  in  the  voice,  for  declaring,  in  one  case,  the  plain 
and  simple  condition  of  thought ;  and  in  the  other,  the  excited 
mental  condition  of  feeling  or  passion. 

Schoolmen  make  a  distinction  between  thoughts  and  feelings, 
and  common  usage  has  adopted  their  language.  This  is  not  a 
place  for  controversy :  nor  is  it  necessary  to  inquire,  deliberately, 
whether  the  above  distinction  refers  to  the  essential  nature  of 
the  things,  or  to  their  degrees.  Some  may  be  disposed  to  con- 
sider thoughts  and  feelings  merely  as  various  degrees  of  intensity 
in  ideas  :  since  the  function,  noted  as  a  mere  thought  in  one,  has 
in  another,  from  its  urgency,  and  without  apparent  specific  dif- 
ference, the  bright  hue  of  a  feeling ;  and  since  in  the  same 
person  at  diiferent  times,  like  circumstances  produce,  according 
to  the  varied  susceptibility  of  excitement,  the  mental  condition 
of  either  a  feeling  or  a  thought.  Perhaps  it  might  not  be 
difiicult,  to  show  that  these  states  of  the  mind  have  many  points 
in  common  ;  and  that  no  definite  line  of  demarkation  can  be 
drawn  between  them.  But  however  inseparably  involved  at 
their  points  of  affinity,  they  arc  in  their  more  remote  relation- 
ships, either  in  kind  or  degree  distinguishably  diff"erent. 

Corresponding  to  this  diff'erence  between  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, the  vocal  means  for  declaring  their  extreme  distinctions 
are,  as  we  shall  learn  hereafter  strongly  marked  :  while  their 


134  THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH. 

assimilating  points  prevent  a  strict  line  of  separation  between 
them.  In  uttering  a  simple  request,  we  use  quite  a  different 
intonation  and  force,  from  that  employed  on  the  same  words, 
in  the  spirit  of  a  command.  But  gradually  add  earnestness  to 
the  request,  and  gradually  moderate  the  spirit  of  the  command ; 
and  as  the  states  of  mind  become  identical,  so  will  the  voices, 
if  properly  representing  those  changes.  Notwithstanding  the 
universal  admission  of  a  difference  of  meaning  in  the  terms 
Thought  and  Passion,  yet  in  our  ignorance  of  the  analytic 
history  of  speech,  we  have  not  felt  the  want  of  a  discriminative 
nomenclature,  and  consequently  have  had  no  brief  correspond- 
ing terms,  to  designate  precisely,  the  vocal  signs  that  severally 
represent  them.  Books  on  elocution  have  indeed,  employed 
the  word  Expression,  to  signify  the  utterance  of  feeling  or 
passion.  But  they  furnish  us  with  no  single  or  appropriate 
term  for  the  plain  declaration  of  simple  passionless  thought ; 
which  as  we  proceed  in  our  history  will  be  essentially  required. 
Till  science  breathes  a  defining  and  dividing  voice  over  com- 
mon thought  and  language,  all  is  desultory  and  confused.  Thus 
the  term  Expression,  though  sufficient  for  the  indefinite  purpose 
y  of  the  Orator  and  Player,  does  not  answer  the  purpose  of 
exact  discrimination ;  for  it  is  as  common  to  speak  of  the 
expression  of  the  thought  or  sense  of  discourse,  as  of  its  feeling  or 
^  passion.  This  want  of  precision  in  the  use  of  the  terms  Thought 
and  Feeling,  prevents  a  clear  distinction,  between  the  terms  of 
the  Vocal  signs,  by  which  each  should  be  respectively  represented. 
We  will  however,  employ  the  term  Expression,  to  denote  the 
sentiment  and  passion  of  the  speaker.  But  where  shall  we  find 
a  contradistinguishing  term,  for  his  simple  thought  ? 

Generally,  in  plain  narrative  and  description,  we  state  the  sim- 
ple condition  of  thought :  and  as  we  shall  learn  hereafter,  that  a 
certain  form  of  intonation  is  appropriate  to  the  language  of  simple 
Narrative,  we  may  draw  our  term  from  it.  I  will  therefore  adopt 
the  terms  Narrative,  and  Expression,  respectively,  for  the  signs 
of  Thought  and  of  Passion,  as  they  are  employed  in  Reading  and 
Speech.  But  we  shall  find  in  the  following  pages,  how  difficult 
it  is  to  draw  a  definite  line  of  separation  between  the  mingling 


THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH.  135 

signs  of  simple  thought,  and  of  passion ;  and  how  readily  the 
intellectual  as  well  as  the  vocal  relationships  pass,  by  indistin- 
guishable shades,  into  each  other. 

The  classifications  of  science  were  instituted,  in  part,  to  assist 
the  memory  and  imagination ;  but  while  they  fulfill  the  purpose 
of  communicating  and  preserving  knowledge,  they  unfortunately 
produce  the  undesigned  hindrance  of  its  alteration  or  advance- 
ment, by  creating  a  belief  of  its  systematic  completion.  The 
numberless  revolutions  in  scientific  arrangements  are  full  of 
admonitions :  yet  we  forget  how  often  the  fictitious  affinities, 
and  the  distinctions  of  system  have  on  the  one  hand,  pre- 
sumptuously united  the  intended  divisions  of  nature,  and  on 
the  other,  broken  the  beautiful  connection  of  her  circle  of  truth. 

In  submission  to  the  necessities  of  instruction,  I  have,  in 
this  essay,  tried  to  separate  the  part  called,  for  the  want  of  a 
brief  and  better  term,  the  ^^Simple  Narrative  of  speech,  from 
that  which  treats  of  its  Expressive  signs ;  with  the  hope  that 
future  observation  may  determine  their  real  relationships,  by  a 
full  development  of  the  nature  of  the  mind  and  of  the  voice. 
For  we  may  as  well  suppose,  all  those  works  of  usefulness  are 
already  accomplished,  which  are  foretold  by  the  powers  of 
human  observation,  and  the  calculated  promises  of  Science ;  as 
that  those  Delightful  Arts,  which  employ  while  they  regulate 
the  imagination,  have  to  minds  of  intelligent  and  refined  percep- 
tions, presented  their  yet  undisclosed  grandeurs  and  graces,  in 
Form,  and  Color,  and  Sound,  marked-out  for  fulfillment  in  the 
Prophetic  Book  of  Taste.  Let  us  leave  the  seventh  day  of 
rest,  to  the  holiday  rejoicing  of  physicians,  lawyers,  priests, 
and  politicians,  who  look  upon  their  disastrous  creations, 
and  cunning  schemes  for  human  misery,  and  pronounce  them 
original,  and  finished,  and  good.  Let  them  build  strongly 
around  the  vaunted  perfection  of  their  Theories,  Codes,  Coun- 
cils, and  Constitutions.  Let  them  guard  the  ark  of  a  forefather's 
wisdom,  and  proclaim  its  unalterable  holiness  to  the  people,  for 
the  safety,  honor  and  emolument  of  the  keeper.  The  great 
Contributions  to  Knowledge,  like  the  great  and  progressive 
Creations  of  Nature  herself,  have  never  yet  found,  and  perhaps 


136  THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH. 

never  will  find,  their  day  of  rest :  while  the  renowned  fore- 
fathers of  many  a  work  of  usefulness  as  well  as  glory  are,  by 
the  like  merit  or  ambition  which  raised  their  own  temporary 
greatness,  transmuted  to  corrigible  children,  in  the  eye  of  the 
advancing  labor  of  a  later  age. 

It  has  been  alleged  of  the  expression  of  speech,  that  a  dis- 
crimination of  its  concealed  and  delicate  agency,  is  beyond  the 
scrutiny  of  the  human  ear.  If  the  term  human  ear  is  sarcasti- 
cally used  for  that  fruitlessly  busy  and  slavish  organ,  which  has 
so  long  listened  for  the  clear  voice  of  nature,  amid  the  conflict- 
ing tumult  of  opinion  and  authority,  we  must  admit  and  regret 
the  truth  of  the  assertion.  But  it  is  not  true  of  a  keen, 
industrious,  and  independent  exercise  of  the  senses ;  nor  can  it 
be  affirmed,  without  profanity,  of  that  supreme  power  of  obser- 
vation, deputed  by  the  original,  and  final  cause  of  creation,  for 
the  efiective  gathering  of  truth,  and  the  progressive  improve- 
ment of  mankind. 

Our  conquests  in  knowledge  must  be  the  joint  achievement  of 
Numbers  and  Time.  Leaving  then  to  futurity  the  completion  of 
my  design,  I  looked  around  for  present  assistance :  and  having, 
with  more  need  than  hope,  consulted  the  thoughts  of  others,  on 
the  analytic  means  of  delineating  the  signs  of  expression,  I 
generally  received  some  query  like  this :  Is  it  possible  to  recog- 
nize and  measure  all  those  delicate  variations  of  sound,  that 
have  passed  so  long  without  detection,  and  that  seem  scarcely 
more  amenable  to  sense  than  the  atoms  of  air  on  which  they  are 
made  ?     It  is  possible  to  do  all  this :  and  if  we  cannot  Find  a 

way  for  the  victorious  development  of  nature,  'let  us,' with 

the  maxim,  and  in  the  contriving  spirit  and  resolution  of  the 
great  Carthagenian  Captain, 'let  us  Make  one.' 

It  will  not  be  denied,  that  intonation,  time,  and  force  of 
voice,  under  all  their  forms,  constituting  the  expression  of 
speech,  may  be  distinctly  heard ;  and  that  there  is  no  liabiHty, 
even  in  the  common  ear,  to  misapprehend,  or  to  confound  the 
varied  sentiments,  they  respectively  convey.  No :  but  it  is 
objected,  that  the  peculiar  kind,  the  measurable  degree,  and  the 
commingling  variety  of  those  forms    cannot  be  distinguished. 


THE  EXPRESSION  OF  SPEECH.  137 

Now  since  the  vocal  movements  thus  distinctlj  audible,  include 
all  these  conditions ;  and  since  our  sentiments  are  so  readily 
recognized  under  all  their  kinds,  degrees,  and  combinations,  I 
leave  it  to  those  who  make  the  objection,  to  ask  themselves, 
whether  a  full  and  clear  discrimination  of  the  vocal  signs  of 
expression  is  not  implied  in  that  recognition.  The  truth  is,  the 
delicate  voices  of  expression,  though  supposed  to  be  impercepti- 
ble, are  always  distinctly  heard ;  and  as  far  as  an  unhesitating 
apprehension  of  their  meaning  may  prove  the  assertion,  are 
always  recognized  and  measured,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the 
word:  but  they  Tiav»  never  been  named.  And  although  all 
persons  who  are  observant  in  this  way,  have  nearly  an  equally 
acute  perception  of  the  expression  of  speech,  they  have  no 
language  for  designating  those  delicate  discriminations,  every 
day  unconsciously  made  even  by  the  popular  ear.  I  propose  to 
give,  in  the  course  of  this  essay,  an  analysis  of  vocal  expression  ; 
to  point  out  its  modes,  forms,  and  varieties,  and  to  assign  a 
definite  nomenclature  to  them. 

There  is  perhaps  no  vain  confidence,  in  supposing  the  reader 
to  be  now  well  acquainted  with  the  character  of  the  radical  and 
vanishing  movement.  This  wide-reaching  function,  and  master- 
principle  of  the  voice,  has  been  represented  under  its  varied 
forms,  in  speech  and  song.  We  have  traced  it  in  the  Literal 
elements,  and  seen  its  influence  in  directing  the  phenomena  of 
syllables.  I  have  yet  to  show  its  instrumentality  in  the  various 
and  delicate  uses  of  expression :  and  if  I  shall  be  able  thereby 
to  unfold  the  principles  of  this  marvellous  work  of  nature,  it 
will  be  by  developing  that  greater  marvel  of  agency,  in  which  a 
strict  economy  of  means  is  employed  for  the  production  of  her 
infinities. 

Five  general  divisions  of  the  modes  of  vocal  sound  were  made 
in  the  first  section  of  this  essay.  In  summary  repetition,  they 
are.  Quality,  or  kind  of  voice ;  Time,  or  the  measure  of  its 
duration ;  Force,  or  the  variations  of  strength  and  weakness ; 
Abruptness,  or  an  explosive  utterance  ;  and  Pitch,  or  the  varia- 
tions of  acuteness  and  gravity.  It  will  be  shown,  that  each  of 
these  general  modes  is  inclusive  of  many  forms  and  varieties, 
10 


138  THE  PITCH 

with  their  different  degrees;  and  that  the  now  assignable,  and 
measurable  Expression  of  Speech,  is  effected  by  the  un-mysterious 
combination  of  the  different  forms  and  varieties  of  these  modes 
with  each  other. 


SECTION  VII. 
Of  the  Pitch  of  the    Voice. 

The  mode  of  the  voice  we  have  now  to  consider,  although 
not  more  essential  than  the  others,  in  the  constituency  of  speech, 
has  nevertheless,  from  our  ignorance  of  its  nature,  been  a  sub- 
ject of  wonder  ;  and  from  our  childish  love  of  wonder,  has 
become  especially  a  subject  of  interesting  inquiry.  To  this 
mode  of  Pitch,  belong  the  many  forms  and  varieties  of  Intona- 
tion, or  as  they  have  been  called  in  the  schools  of  Rhetoric  and 
Prose  dy,  by  a  sort  of  prescriptive  determination,  the  '  undis- 
coverable  Tones  of  the  voice.' 

The  Greeks  in  their  fondness  for  definition  and  division,  were 
always  disposed  to  go  to  the  root  of  whatever  knowledge  they 
believed  to  have  a  root,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  worthy  of 
inquiry.  They  seem  therefore,  as  we  might  infer  from  their 
want  of  logical  curiosity  on  this  point,  to  have  considered  a  full 
analysis  of  speech,  either  as  impracticable,  or  as  useless.  But, 
whether  from  these  or  other  causes,  the  subject  so  feebly 
attracted  their  attention,  that  we  might  be  disposed  to  think 
they  derived  their  knowledge  of  the  sliding  or  concrete  move- 
ment, from  Egypt,  or  from  some  earlier  Eastern  source.  Had  it 
been  discovered  in  the  school  of  Pythagoras,  or  of  Aristoxenus, 
it  does  not  seem  probable,  that  having  found  this  key  to  the 


OF  THE  VOICE.  139 

entrance  of  Speech,  they  would  have  shut-out  their  hearing 
from  -what  yet  remained  within  the  secrecy  of  nature :  since, 
with  very  little  further  observation  of  the  simple  concrete,  they 
would  have  perceived  that  important  subdivision  of  its  structure, 
which  we  have  described  as  the  Radical  and  Vanish.  However 
this  may  have  been,  neither  the  Greeks  nor  the  Romans,  although 
apparently  writing  all  they  knew  on  the  nature  and  practical 
uses  of  the  concrete  accent,  have  left  the  least  record  of  their 
opinions,  their  expectations,  or  their  hopes  on  this  subject,  beyond 
the  restricted  limit  of  what  they  already  knew.  Yet  interesting  as 
this  fact  of  the  Concrete  is,  and  certain  as  it  is,  that  they  perceived 
it ;  it  is  equally  true,  they  never  added  to  the  first  and  simple 
idea  of  this  accentual  slide,  the  smallest  item  of  discriminative 
analysis.  The  earlier  grammarians  and  commentators  of  the 
Alexandrian,  and  of  subsequent  schools,  in  discussing  the  sub- 
ject of  Greek  accent,  never  extended  their  ideas  beyond  the 
indefinite  opinions  of  ancient  writers ;  while  still  later  authors 
and  teachers,  with  the  determined  faith  and  worship  of  classical 
scholarship,  believing  it  was  not  done  by  the  Greeks,  because  it 
really  could  not  be  done  at  all,  have  at  last  united  in  a  general 
persuasion,  nay  conviction,  that  any  further  discovery  is  im- 
possible.* 


*As  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  in  his  treatise  *0n  the  Arrangement  of 
Words,'  has  recorded  more  of  the  nature  and  practical  uses  of  this  accent  or  in- 
flection, than  any  other  Greek  or  Roman  writer,  I  shall,  in  order  to  show  how 
limited  and  indefinite  he  is,  give  from  his  eleventh  section,  an  extract  of  all  he 
says  on  this  point ;  and  shall  insert  in  its  course  some  explanatory  parenthetic 
remarks. 

'  There  is  in  oratorical  discourse,  a  kind  of  Tune,  differing  from  that  of  Song, 
and  (from  the  melody')  of  Music,  only  in  degree,  but  not  in  nature  or  quality.' 
( We  suppose  he  means  that  each  employs  intervals,  but  speech  fewer,  and  these,  of  less 
extent.)  Immediately,  following-up  the  idea,  he  adds :  'There  is  in  oratorical 
discourse,  the  like  tune,  that  charms  the  ear;  the  like  rythmus,  that  sustains 
the  voice  ;  the  like  variety  that  excites  attention ;  and  a  like  conformity  of  the 
whole  to  its  purpose;  the  only  difference  being  in  the  more  and  the  less.' 
{That  is,  in  the  number  and  extent  of  the  intervals.)  'In  oratorical  discourse  the 
tune  of  the  voice  is  restricted  to  the  interval  of  a  Fifth,  or  thereabouts.  That 
is,  it  does  not  vary  beyond  three  tones  and  a  half,  [these  being  the  constituents  of 
a  Fifth)  whether  in  an  upward  or  downward  direction.     It  is  not  to  be  under- 


][40  THE  PITCH 

If  then  we  have,  by  any  means  come  to  a  perception  of  the 
nature  and  uses  of  the  voice,  let  us  endeavor  to  apply  it. 

There  is,  in  our  first  section,  a  compendious  view  of  the 
various  forms  of  Pitch,  taken  in  succession,  from  the  minute 
interval  of  the  tremulous  scale,  through  wider  ranges,  to  the 
octave,  both  in  their  upward  and  downward  direction,  together 
with  their  union  into  various  forms  of  the  wave.  The  greater 
part  of  these  forms,  as  with  those,  of  Quality,  and  Time,  are 
employed  in  the  expression  of  feeling  and  passion :  and  but  a 
small  part  for  declaring  a  simple  idea,  or  for  what  we  called 
Narrative.     It  is  therefore  my  design  to  show  how  these  different 

stood  that  all  the  words  of  discourse  are  to  be  pronounced  with  the  same  accent, 
[inflection  or  concrete) :  for  one  is  to  have  an  acute,  {rising)  another,  a  grave 
[falling)  accent,  and  another,  to  have  both :  [that  is,  the  acute,  Joined  in  con- 
tinuation with  the  grave,  on  the  same  syllable)  which  is  called  the  Circum- 
flex. Again,  some  words  have  the  acute,  and  the  grave,  separately  heard  on 
diflferent  syllables.  In  dissyllables,  there  is  no  middle  place  for  applying  an 
acute  or  grave.  [Merely  a  truism,  for  where  there  is  no  middle  syllable  there  can 
be  no  middle  accent).  In  poly-syllables  of  every  kind,  one  of  the  syllables  has 
the  acute  accent,  and  the  rest  the  grave.'  '  The  tune  [say  intonation)  of  instru- 
ments and  of  song,  is  by  no  means  limited,  as  in  speech,  to  this  interval  of  the 
Fifth ;  but  runs  through  the  octave,  fifth,  fourth,  second,  semitone,  and  accord- 
ing to  some,  the  quarter  tone.' 

Here  is  all  Dionysius  says,  on  what  we  have  been  taught  to  think  the  profound 
knowledge  and  skill  of  the  Greeks,  in  the  philosophy  and  practice  of  this  singing, 
—  or  as  we  should  now  call  it,  intonation  —  in  speech.     But  we  find,  that  this  only 
attempt  to  describe,  particularly,  the  melody  of  Grecian  discourse,  is  directly 
connected  with  an  equally  obscure,  and  disputed  subject,  the  Accentual  stress  on 
syllables ;  which  certainly  could  not  have  been  the  case,  had  any  of  the  numer- 
ous authors  on  this  subject  have  had  the  least  idea  of  the  natural  and  compre- 
hensive system  of  intonation.     Indeed  the  account  by  Dionysius,  and  by  all  the 
writers  on  rhetoric  and  music,  seems  to  have  been  given  only  in  reference  to 
some  vague,  and  as  we  must  now  consider  it,  absurd  notion  of  the  acute,  grave, 
and  circumflex  accent  or  inflection,  being  invariably  applied  to  certain  syllables, 
both  when  pronounced  alone,  and  in  the  current  of  discourse.  '  It  would  be 
wrong,  to  say,  Dionysius,  and  his  Grecians  did  not  know  their  own  opinions 
about  the  voice :  but  I  must  think,  a  student  of  nature,  in  this  case  will  say, — 
they  knew  almost  nothing  of  its  reality.     When  an  error  is  measured  by  itself, 
as  happens  with  systems  raised  upon  authority  or  fancy,  all  that  is  defective, 
distorted,  or  superfluous,  comes  out  in  perfect  accord  with  its  own  rule.     It  is 
a  comparison  with  the  rule  of  observation,  which  is  found  only  in  nature,  that 
shows  its  deformity. 


OF  THE  VOICE.  141 

purposes  of  pitch,  are  applied  for  declaring  these  several  condi- 
tions of  the  mind. 

Man  is  so  generally,  merely  an  animal  of  fierce  desires  and 
passions,  and  so  rarely  a  being  of  observation  and  reflection, 
that  we  must  not  be  surprised  to  find  the  greater  number  of  his 
vocal  signs,  expressive  of  this  ardent  and  predominating  com- 
plexion of  his  character.  Thus  of  all  the  upward  and  downward 
intervals  of  the  scale,  and  all  the  waves,  in  their  direct  and 
inverted,  equal  and  unequal,  single  and  double  forms,  there  is 
but  one  which  is  not  so  employed.  The  simple  rise  and  fall  of 
the  second,  and  perhaps  its  wave,  when  used  for  plain  narrative, 
or  for  the  mere  statement  of  an  unexcited  idea,  is  the  only  into- 
nated voice  of  man  that  does  not  spring  from  a  passionate,  or 
in  some  degree,  an  earnest  condition  of  his  mind.  If  we  listen 
to  his  ignorance,  doubt,  selfishness,  arrogance,  and  injustice,  we 
hear  the  vivid  forms  of  vocal  expression,  proceeding  from  these, 
and  related  passions.  Thus  we  have  the  rising  intervals  of  the 
third,  fifth,  and  octave,  for  interrogatives,  not  of  wisdom  but  of 
envious  curiosity ;  the  downward  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  for 
dogmatic,  or  tyrannical  command ;  waves  for  the  surprise  of 
ignorance,  the  snarling  of  ill-humor,  and  the  curling  voice,  along 
with  the  curling  lip  of  contempt  ;  the  piercing  hight  of  pitch, 
for  the  scream  of  terror ;  the  semitone,  for  the  peevish  whine  of 
discontent,  and  for  the  puling  cant  of  the  hypocrite  and  the 
knave,  who  cover,  beneath  the  voice  of  kindness,  the  designs  of 
their  craft.  Then  listen  to  him  on  those  rare  occasions,  when 
he  forgets  himself  and  his  passions,  and  has  to  utter  a  simple 
idea,  or  plainly  to  narrate  ;  and  you  will  hear  the  second,  the 
least  obstrusive  interval  of  the  scale,  in  the  admirable  harmony 
of  nature,  made  the  simple  sign  of  the  unexcited  sentiment  of 
her  wisdom  and  truth.  In  short,  man  as  an  Individual,  is  in  his 
forms  of  intonation,  only  the  type  of  an  eternal  National  Cha- 
racter,—  always  prone  to  be  vividly  expressive  of  its  vain-glory, 
and  its  contempt  of  others  ;  unjustly  aggressive  in  its  high-toned 
assumptions  and  imperative  threats;  with  the  piercing  and 
prevailing  cry  of  war,  from  within  and  from  without,  and  only 


142  '  THE  PITCH 

occasionally  resting  in  the  quiet  voice  of  moral  and  intellectual 
peace,  with  the  Temple  of  Janus  shut. 

In  describing  the  radical  and  vanish,  the  simple  interval  of 
the  second  was  represented  as  an  individual  function,  under  its 
form  of  the  equable  concrete,  on  a  simple  tonic  element.  We 
will  consider  in  the  next  section,  its  application  to  successive 
syllables  and  words,  in  sentences  of  continuous  speech.  This 
continuous  speech,  thus  formed  by  the  simple  second,  cannot 
from  the  character  of  that  second,  have  what  we  call  expression. 
It  may  therefore  seem  that  nature  has  designed  continuous  speech 
in  the  second,  to  be  a  plain  and  colorless  ground,  for  the  con- 
trasted display  of  the  vivid  voice  of  wider  expressive  intervals, 
applied  to  occasional  syllables  in  its  course.  And  here  the  reader 
may  perceive  one  reason  for  our  proposed  distinction  between  the 
non-expressive,  so  to  call  it,  and  the  expressive  character  of  the 
constituents  of  speech.  It  was  formerly  stated  that  the  notes 
of  the  musical  scale,  under  a  certain  order  of  succession,  con- 
stitute the  melody  of  song ;  and  we  now  have  to  show  how  the 
concrete  and  discrete  intervals  of  the  speaking  scale  constitute, 
under  a  similarity  of  term,  the  Melody  of  Speech. 

Since  I  am  about  to  represent  that  continuous  melody  of  a 
second,  or  tone,  as  the  ground  upon  which  the  purposes  of  other 
intervals,  and  of  other  constituents  of  speech  are  to  be  dis- 
tributed, I  must  beg  the  student  to  give  his  deliberate  attention 
to  the  subject. 

The  succession  of  syllables  in  plain  narrative,  or  description, 
being  through  the  intervals  of  a  concrete  and  discrete  to7ie,  the 
melody  is  specified  as  Diatonic. 


I 


-»»® 


OF  THE  VOICE.  143 


SECTION  VIII. 

Of  the  Diatonic  Melody  of  Speech ;  together  with  an  inquiry 

how  far  the  Musical  terms.  Key  and  Modulation^ 

are  applicable  to  it. 

When  the  nature  of  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement  vras 
described,  it  was  regarded  individually,  or  as  applied  to  a  single 
syllable.  But  as  speech  consists  for  the  most  part,  of  a  series 
of  syllables,  on  each  of  which  some  form  of  the  concrete  in- 
stinctively occurs,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  use  and  relation- 
ships of  the  radical  and  vanish,  in  its  repeated  application  to 
the  successive  syllables  of  discourse. 

In  plain  Narrative  or  Description,  the  concrete  of  each  syllable 
is  made  through  the  interval  of  a  tone :  and  the  successive 
concretes  have  a  difference  in  the  place  of  their  pitch,  relatively 
to  each  other.  The  application  of  these  concretes  to  syllables, 
and  the  manner  of  varying  the  succession  of  their  pitch,  are 
exemplified  on  the  following  sentence. 

He  reads  in  na ture's  in fi nite 


book  of        se ere cy 


^4  4^ 


If  these  lines  and  the  included  spaces  be  supposed,  each  in 
proximate  order  to  denote  the  difference  of  a  tone  in  pitch,  the 
succession  of  the  several  radicals,  with  their  issuing  vanish,  will 
show  the  places  of  the  syllables  of  the   superscribed  sentence, 


144  THE  DIATONIC 

in  easy  and  unirapassioned  utterance.  The  perception  of  the 
effect  of  the  concretes,  and  their  successions  here  exemplified, 
is  called  the  Melody  of  Speech. 

A  strict  definition  of  the  term,  melody  of  speech,  embraces 
the  modes  of  pitch,  force,  and  time,  together  -with  the  pause  ; 
and  regards  likewise,  intervals  of  the  scale  wider  than  that 
above  exemplified,  as  well  as  intervals  with  a  downward  move- 
ment: but  as  the  nature  of  each  of  these  wider  intervals,  with 
their  place  and  purpose  in  melody,  will  be  separately  described 
hereafter,  the  present  section  is  limited  to  the  subject  of  pitch, 
when  the  melody  is  made  exclusively  through  the  rising  con- 
crete, and  the  rising  and  falling  discrete  interval  of  a  tone. 

An  accurate  perception  of  the  difference  of  pitch  in  speech 
can  be  obtained,  only  by  close  observation,  and  by  well-directed 
experiment.  The  pupil  being  able  to  intonate  the  scale,  let  him 
practice  the  interval  of  a  second  on  syllables,  instead  of  on  the 
simple  tonic  element;  using  a  different  syllable  for  each  degree. 
Thus  prepared,  let  him  read  the  line  of  the  preceding  diagram, 
and  try  to  recognize  its  intonation,  by  slowly  pronouncing,  or 
rather  hacTcing-out  only  the  tonic  element  of  each  syllable ; 
and  giving  those  elements  so  short  and  abrupt  a  sound,  that  the 
reading  being  thus  inarticulate,  may  resemble  the  successions  of 
a  short  cough.  This  method  will  make  the  variations  of  pitch 
more  distinguishable  than  when  the  other  elements  of  the  sylla- 
ble are  uttered  along  with  the  tonic. 

If  this  contrived  utterance  should  not  afford  a  clear  percep- 
tion, that  the  radical  of  a  given  syllable  rises  or  falls  a  tone, 
from  the  place  of  the  preceding  one,  let  the  pupil  measure  the 
questionable  relation  of  the  two  sounds,  by  the  rule  of  the  scale, 
in  the  following  manner.  While  he  pronounces  the  two  sylla- 
bles as  if  he  were  reading,  let  him  notice  their  pitch,  as  parts 
of  the  scale.  When  the  second  is  above  the  first,  those  two 
rjyllabic  sounds  will  form  the  first  two  steps  of  the  rising  scale ; 
and  continuing  to  rise  by  an  alternate  use  of  these  syllables,  he 
will  complete  that  scale.  When  the  second  syllable  is  heloiv  the 
first,  he  will,  on  adding  one  or  more  tones  successively  below  the 
second,  recognize  the  peculiar  effect,  heard  at  the  close  of  the 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  145 

scale,  and  on  a  fall  of  the  voice  at  a  period  of  discourse :  for 
this  effect  is  produced  only  by  a  downward  movement.  In  the 
use  of  the  means  here  directed,  the  ear  must,  with  divided 
attention,  be  turned  at  the  same  time,  to  the  progress  of  the 
spoken  melody,  and  to  the  successions  of  pitch  in  the  musical 
scale. 

In  order  to  explain  the  system  of  melody,  we  may  consider 
the  succession  of  its  sounds,  as  divided  into  that  prevailing 
generally  in  the  sentence,  and  that  applied  to  a  short  portion 
at  its  termination.  These  divisions  may  be  termed,  the  Current 
melody,  and  the  melody  of  the  Cadence. 

The  current  melody,  or  the  succession  of  rise  and  fall,  em- 
ployed on  all  the  syllables  of  a  sentence,  except  the  three  last, 
may  be  thus  described. 

In  simple  phraseology,  conveying  no  emphatic  sentiment, 
every  syllable  consists  of  the  upward  radical  and  vanishing  tone. 
The  succession  of  these  concretes  has  a  variation  of  pitch,  in 
which  the  radicals  of  any  two  never  differ  from  each  other  more 
than  the  interval  of  a  tone. 

To  distinguish  these  two  forms  of  melodial  progression,  by 
short  and  referrible  terms,  let  us  call  the  concrete  rise  of  each 
syllable,  the  Concrete  Pitch  of  melody ;  and  the  place  assumed 
by  the  radical  of  each  syllabic  impulse,  above  or  below  that  of 
the  preceding,  the  Radical  Pitch.  Thus  in  the  foregoing  exam- 
ple of  notation,  every  one  of  the  syllables  has  the  concrete  pitch 
of  a  tone,  passing  from  line  to  space,  or  from  space  to  line. 
The  two,-  respectively  composing  the  words  7iature,  and  hook 
of,  differ  a  discrete  tone  from  each  other  in  their  radical  pitch ; 
while  the  radical  pitch  of  the  three  syllables  in  mfinite  is  the 
same. 

It  will  be  shown,  hereafter,  in  its  proper  place,  that  the 
melody  employed  at  some  of  the  pauses  in  discourse,  requires  a 
certain  succession  of  radical  pitch,  for  the  just  representation  of 
sense,  and  the  different  degrees  of  connection  between  clauses. 
But  the  parts  contained  within  the  divisions  made  by  these 
pauses,  have  in  general,  no  fixed  arrangement :  for  the  effect 
will  be  natural  and  agreeable,  if  the  melody  of  these  parts  is 


146 


THE  DIATONIC 


made  by  avoiding  a  continuation  of  the  same  radical  pitch,  or 
of  an  alternate  rising  and  falling ;  or  any  other  progression  of 
too  remarkable  a  regularity.  I  offer  three  different  notations 
of  the  same  sentence ;  where  the  succession  of  the  radical  and 
vanish  of  each  reading  is  varied  ;  the  above  caution  observed ; 
and  where  the  melody  has  a  natural  construction. 


He      ne- 


drinka, 


but 


Ti- 


-mon's     sil- 


^ZZ 


¥    4^ 


treads       up on         his     lip. 


4     4L 


He      no ver        drinks,         but  Ti mon's     sil ver 


k 


^    4  ^  4  ^\ 


^ 


treads        up on        his 

lip. 

^444 

tf                r     ^ 

He 

ne ver 

drinks, 

but 

Ti mon's 

sil 

—ver 

4 

^ 

-/ 

^ 

4  ^ 

^ 

4 

1    -    4     -      - 

treads       up on        his         lip. 


ZZ^ 


z: 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH. 


147 


Other  arrangements  of  a  proper  and  agreeable  melody  might 
be  made  for  this  sentence,  on  the  principles  of  the  varied  suc- 
cession of  radical  pitch  here  exemplified.  But,  however  varied 
the  succession,  its  forms  are  all  reducible  to  a  limited  number  of 
aggregates  of  the  concrete  tones.  These  may  be  called  the 
Phrases  of  Melody.  These  phrases  are  shown  in  the  notation 
of  the  following  lines ;  where  the  current  is  constructed  in  a 
manner  not  unsuitable  to  the  simple  narrative  of  the  couplet ; 
though  here,  as  in  some  other  instances  of  this  essay,  the 
melody  is  given  with  a  view  to  illustrate  description,  rather  than 
to  furnish  examples  of  appropriate  elocution. 


That    quar — ter      most    the  skil — ful  Greeks     an noy, 


4-4-4 


Z" 


Monotone.        Falling  Ditone.     Rising  Tritone.     Rising  Ditone. 
Where  yon    wild        fig    trees  join     the  ■walls       of      Troy. 


«^«/ 

^  «f  tf  ^ 

^  of  ^ 

^  •/ 

w                ^ 

^  ^ 

Falling  Tritone. 


Alternation. 


Triad  of  the  Cadence. 


When  two  or  more  syllables  as  in  the  above  example,  occur 
successively  on  the  same  i)lace  of  radical  pitch,  it  may  be  called 
the  phrase  of  the  Monotone. 

When  the  radical  pitch  of  a  syllable  is  a  tone  above  that  of  a 
preceding  syllable,  the  phrase  may  be  termed  the  Rising  Ditone. 

When  the  radical  pitch  of  a  syllable  is  a  tone  below  that  of  a 
preceding  syllable,  the  Falling  Ditone. 

When  the  radicals  of  three  syllables  successively  ascend  a 
tone,  the  Rising  Tritone. 

When  the  radicals  of  three  syllables  successively  descend  a 
tone,  the  Falling  Tritone. 

A  train  of  three   or  more  syllables,  alternately  a  tone  above 


148  THE  DIATONIC 

and  below  each  other,  may  be  called  an  Alternation  or  the 
Alternate  phrase.  This  may  seem  an  unnecessary  distinction  ; 
as  the  alternate  phrase  is  no  more  than  a  succession  of  the  rising 
and  the  falling  ditone.  But  as  this  succession  does  often  occur 
in  speech,  the  term  Alternation  is  here  assigned,  as  a  brief 
expression  for  this  form  of  melodial  progression. 

When  three  syllables  successively  descend  in  their  radical 
pitch,  at  the  close  of  a  sentence,  the  phrase  may  be  called  the 
Cadence,  or  Triad  of  the  Cadence.  This  is,  indeed,  a  falling 
tritone,  but  since  the  vanish  of  the  lowest  radical  in  the  tritone 
of  the  cadence  always  descends,  as  will  be  shown  presently,  I 
have  thought  proper  to  contradistinguish  and  to  specify  it,  as 
the  Triad. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  here,  that  the  terms  and  characters  of 
the  phrases  of  melody  are  the  same,  when  the  syllabic  vanish 
has  the  downward  course  ;  the  movements  of  the  radical  pitch, 
especially  constituting  the  phrases,  not  being  affected  by  the 
direction  of  the  concrete  pitch. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  resolve  the  melody  of  plain  narrative 
or  description,  into  more  than  these  seven  phrases.  It  would 
seem  to  be  part  of  the  ordination  of  the  diatonic  melody,  that 
there  should  not  be  a  continued  rise,  or  fall  of  radical  pitch, 
to  any  great  extent,  by  proximate  degrees.  It  is  here  limited 
to  the  tritone,  in  both  directions,  because  it  appears  to  me  that 
a  further  progression  is  not  agreeable.  Whether  the  propriety 
of  excluding  rising  and  falling  phrases  of  more  than  three  con- 
stituents, from  diatonic  speech,  might  be  grounded  on  the 
perception,  that  the  effect  of  such  phrases  somewhat  resembles 
the  effect  of  song,  particularly  in  ascending  the  scale,  whereby  the 
semitone  is  traversed,  I  leave  to  be  determined  by  others;  hoping, 
in  the  spirit  of  philosophy,  that  until  this  point  is  ascertained, 
there  will  be  no  party  divisions,  or  useless  contention  about  it. 

The  three  examples  g^ven  in  a  preceding  page,  of  the  varied 
current  melody  of  the  same  sentence,  and  the  statement  that 
even  in  that  short  sentence,  the  phrases  might  be  further  agree- 
ably diversified,  enable  us  to  understand  why  a  speaker,  with  a 
conscious  command  of  the  science  of  melody,  may  readily  avoid 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  149 

a  monotonous  continuation  of  the  same  radical  pitch,  and 
formal  returns  of  similar  progressions.  For  notwithstanding 
the  pitch  is  necessarily  limited  to  the  variety  afforded  by  the 
rise  and  fall  of  a  single  tone,  yet  the  different  phrases  of  melody, 
and  their  practicable  interchanges,  furnish  sequences  of  dis- 
similar passages,  quite  suflBcient  to  prevent  a  recognition  of 
identity  in  the  succession.  The  ear  of  a  skilful  speaker  should 
be  always  on  the  watch,  against  the  too  frequent  repetition  of 
the  same  phrases :  and  there  is  variety  enough  in  their  several 
forms,  to  afford  an  easy  exemption  from  this  cause  of  monotony. 
The  principles  that  govern  the  successions  of  pitch  in  the  melody 
of  speech,  are  similar  to  those  of  the  arrangement  of  varied 
accent  and  quantity,  in  the  rythmus  of  well  adjusted  prose. 
Excellence  in  each  is  the  work  of  a  delicate,  educated,  and 
discerning  ear :  and  its  habitual  and  almost  involuntary  judg- 
ment, is  not  less  effective  in  one  instance,  by  securing  the 
beauties  of  a  varied  intonation,  than' in  the  other,  by  rejecting 
the  prosodial  measures  of  acknowledged  verse. 

If  the  foregoing  description  of  the  successions  of  pitch  in 

plain  narrative,  is  correct,  we  may,  upon  strict  etymology,  call 

the  sum  of  those  successions  the  Diatonic  Melody  of  speech. 

For  in  the  first  place,  the  vanish  of  each  separate  concrete  rises 

through  the  space  of  a  tone ;    and  secondly,  the  changes  of 

radical  pitch  are  made  through  the  same  interval.     We  learn 

then,   that  the  melody  is  made,  partly  in  the  concrete,  and 

partly  in  the  discrete  scale.     The  radical   and  vanish  of  each 

syllable  is  strictly  concrete :  the  transition  from  one  syllable  to 

another  is  strictly  discrete.     The  reader  may  however,  in  the 

last  diagram,   merely  notice,  for  it  is  a  matter  of  no  great 

practical  importance,  that  transitions  of  the  different  phrases, 

give  a  different  extent  to  the  distances  between  any  one  radical, 

and  the  close  of  the  preceding  vanish.     Thus  in  the  rising  ditone 

and  tritone,  there  is  apparently,  no  discrete  interval  between 

them.     In  the   monotone  there  is  a  discrete  second.     In  the 

falling  ditone  and  tritone,  two  discrete  tones,  or  the  interval  of 

a  third.     But  these,  and  similar  differences,  produce,  if  we  may 

except  the  case  of  the  two  discrete  tones,  no  perceptible  effect 


150  THE  DIATONIC 

in  the  melody :  since  in  the  case  of  the  rising  ditone,  where  the 
voices  of  two  syllables  would  seem  to  join,  the  full  abruptness 
of  the  radical,  makes  a  plain  distinction  between  itself  and 
the  feebleness  of  the  vanish. 

The  uses  of  the  concrete  and  the  radical  pitch,  above 
described,  point  out  two  essential  distinctions  between  the 
melody  of  speech  and  that  of  song.  And  first :  song  generally 
employs  the  protracted  radical  and  protracted  vanish,  on  all  its 
syllables ;  whereas  speech  always  employs  the  equable  concrete. 
Secondly :  in  the  melody  of  speech,  the  radical  pitch  proceeds 
by  proximate  degrees,  or  changes  of  a  single  tone  or  second. 
The  melody  of  song  proceeds  variously  both  by  proximate  degrees, 
and  by  skips  of  wider  intervals  of  the  scale. 

In  treating  hereafter  of  the  nature  of  emphasis,  and  of  inter- 
rogative sentences,  the  occasions  and  manner  of  using  wider 
radical  changes  in  speech,  will  be  shown.  The  melody  of  simple 
narrative  or  inexpressive  speech,  now  before  us,  always  moves 
by  proximate  degrees. 

We  proceed  to  analyze  the  intonation,  applied  to  the  three 
final  syllables  of  a  sentence  ;  and  which,  from  its  position  and 
peculiar  nature,  I  have  contradistinguished  as  the  Melody  of 
the  Cadence. 

When  the  eight  tones  of  the  musical  diatonic  scale  are 
uttered,  both  ascending  and  descending,  by  a  repetition  of  the 
word  Cordova^  the  appropriation  of  syllables  will  be  thus ; 
cor-do-va  cor-do-va  cor-do :  and  desending,  cor-do  cor-do-va 
cor-do-va.  By  thus  sol-faing,  if  I  may  so  speak,  on  these  sylla- 
bles, the  last  repetition  of  the  word  in  the  descent,  is  allotted 
to  the  three  lower  notes  of  the  scale :  the  final  syllable  making 
a  full  close  on  its  key-note.  In  this  experiment,  the  intonation 
is  supposed  to  be  made  by  the  prolonged  note  of  song ;  as  it 
would  certainly  be  so  made,  by  a  person  familiar  with  the  scale. 
But  while  descending,  if  these  three  notes  of  song  be  changed 
to  equable  concretes  of  speech,  the  effect  on  the  ear  will  be 
identical  with  that  of  the  same  word,  properly  uttered  at  a  full 
period  of  discourse.     From  this,  and  other   trials,  it   may  be 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  151 

learned,  that  the  melody  of  the  cadence  is  always  made  on  the 
three  closing  notes  of  the  downward  scale. 

But  the  most  remarkable  effect  of  the  cadence  lies  in  another 
point.  Nearly  all  the  radical  sounds  of  the  current  melody  are 
represented  in  the  several  diagrams,  as  terminating  in  a  rising 
vanish  ;  yet  we  shall  learn  hereafter,  that  the  purposes  of  variety 
often  require  the  use  of  a  downward  concrete.  Now,  another 
purpose  of  this  downward  movement  is,  to  bring  the  current  to 
a  close ;  and  with  this  intention,  the  last  constituent  or  lowest 
concrete  of  the  cadence  is  made  by  the  feeble  downward  vanish 
of  a  tone.  This  falling,  so  easily  distinguishable  from  the 
rising  vanish,  assists  in  producing  the  repose  at  the  end  of  a 
sentence  :  and  constitutes,  in  connection  with  the  series  of  three 
descending  radicals,  the  essential  characteristic  of  the  cadence. 

It  was  stated  above,  that  each  syllable  of  the  current  melody 
has  a  radical  and  vanishing  tone  appropriated  to  it.  The  parts 
of  the  cadence  are  not  always  so  apportioned.  Let  us,  for  the 
sake  of  reference,  designate  the  constituent  concretes  of  the 
cadence,  by  their  numeral  positions. 

In  the  First  form  of  the  cadence,  the  first,  the  second,  and 
third  constituent  has  each  a  corresponding  syllable,  with  a 
downward  vanish  on  the  last.  From  the  rising  vanish  on  two 
of  its  constituents,  let  us  call  it,  the  Rising  Triad. 

Sweet  is  the        breath  of  morn. 


The  Second  form  has  a  similar  appropriation  of  concretes  to 
syllables ;  with  a  downward  vanish  on  each  constituent.  Let 
this  be  called,  the  Falling  Triad ;  or,  as  it  denotes  the  most 
complete  close,  the  Full  Cadence. 

The     air      was      fanned      by    un num ber'd      plumes. 

f-rf-v  ^     ^    4  tf^ 


-^ 


152  THE  DIATONIC 

In  the  Third,  the  first  and  second  concretes,  or  a  concrete 
that  occupies  the  conjoined  intervals  of  the  first  and  second,  is 
allotted  to  a  single  syllable.  From  the  first  and 'second  tones 
being  here  set  to. one  syllable,  call  this,  the  First  Duad. 


With 

tur— ret 

crest      and    sleek  en — am — el'd 

neck. 

-^- 

4  4 

^    iT  ^r  -r  cT  a 

V                IP     w               ns 

<< 

In  the  Fourth,  the  second  and  third  coalesce  on  one  syllable. 
From  the  second  and  third  tones  being  set  to  one  syllable,  call 
this,  the  Second  Duad. 

The      mean ing,       not      the      name,  I        call. 


-^         ^  ^       ^—^        ^         ^         \      \ 


In  the  Fifth,  the  three  constituents  are  appropriated  to  one 
long  syllable.  As  this  is  the  least  impressive  form  of  the  close, 
call  it,  the  Feeble  Cadence. 

No,  by  the  rood  not  bo. 

-A — 4'      r     ^ 


In  the  Sixth  form,  which  should  properly  be  called  a  False 
Cadence,  the  second  constituent  is  omitted,  as  in  the  following 
notation. 


Of 

wiles. 

more    in ex pert,       I        boast 

not. 

f£    4  ^    d   ^    ^ 

4 

W           w                      W 

^ 

This  takes  place  when  the  ultimate  and  penult  syllables  of  a 
sentence  are  each  so  short,  that  giving  either  the  length  of  two 
conjoined  concretes,  would  deform  pronunciation. 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  153 

In  this  last  example,  the  cadence  should  be  made  by  a 
successive  descent  of  three  tones,  on  the  words  I  boast  not. 
Should  a  reader,  by  unskilful  management,  neglect  to  set  the 
syllable  hoast^  the  radical  pitch  of  a  tone  below  I,  he  will  be 
unable  to  complete  the  cadence,  by  a  downward  prolongation  of 
the  short  syllable  not,  through  the  interval  of  two  tones,  as 
shown  in  the  fourth  form  of  the  cadence.  But  a  full  close  can- 
not be  made  without  the  third  constituent,  or  an  extension  of 
the  second,  by  a  downward  vanish  through  its  place ;  and  as 
the  syllable  not,  on  account  of  its  short  time,  is  incapable  of 
this  last  condition,  the  second  constituent  must  be  omitted,  and 
a  defective  cadence  made  by  a  skip  to  the  last  place  of  the  triad. 

From  this  account  of  the  cadence,  we  have  learned  that  its 
construction  involves  the  consideration  of  the  time  of  syllables. 
The  first  or  triad  form  may  be  used  under  any  condition  of 
quantity ;  but  if  the  three,  or  even  the  second  and  third  sylla- 
bles should  be  short,  and  not  admit  of  prolongation,  it  is  the 
only  one  available.  The  same  remark  may  be  made  on  the 
second  form.  When  the  penult  is  long,  the  third  form  may  be 
used ;  and  the  fourth  and  fifth  each  requires  a  long  quantity  in 
the  final  syllable. 

Of  the  six  forms  of  the  cadence,  all  except  the  last  make 
natural  and  agreeable  closes ;  but  the  first  and  second,  which 
proceed  by  an  equal  number  of  concretes  and  syllables,  are  of 
the  easiest  execution.  The  third,  fourth,  and  fifth,  each  conjoin- 
ing the  intervals  of  two  and  three  concretes  respectively  on  a 
single  syllable,  require  unusual  facility  in  the  management  of 
Quantity.  Skill  in  commanding  the  time  of  utterance,  will 
enable  an  accomplished  reader  to  perform  with  equal  ease  and 
elegance,  these  three  varieties  of  cadence  ;  and  to  give  a  faultless 
close,  however  unexpectedly  he  may  meet  with  a  period  in  dis- 
course :  while  the  ordinary  reader  frequently  fails  in  the  melody 
of  his  cadence,  from  being  limited  to  the  use  of  its  triad  form. 
For  should  his  current  melody  be  so  continued,  that  a  monotone 
or  rising  ditone  reaches  to  the  penult  syllable,  his  cadence  will 
necessarily  be  awkward  or  false,  either  from  the  last  syllable 
being  short,  or  from  his  being  unable  to  manage  his  time  and 
11 


154  THE  DIATONIC 

intonation,  or  a  single  long  one.  The  last  described  form  of 
the  cadence,  is  not  uncommon  with  the  mass  of  speakers ;  but 
it  is  strictly  forbidden  by  the  rule  of  a  good  composition  in 
melody. 

The  fifth  form  of  the  cadence,  "which  is  made  restrictively 
upon  the  last  syllabic,  is  peculiar.  It  appears  that  the  voice 
does  pass  downward  through  the  same  extent  of  pitch,  as  when 
the  cadence  is  made  in  the  triad  forms ;  but  by  this  wider 
descent  of  the  first  constituent,  the  radicals  of  the  second  and 
third  constituents  are  lost.  Now  it  is  the  fulness  of  the  radical 
that  draws  the  attention  of  the  ear,  to  the  changes  of  pitch  in 
the  current  melody  ;  and  thus  conspicuously  marks  the  descent 
of  the  triad  at  the  close.  The  omission  therefore  of  the  radicals 
of  the  second  and  third  concretes,  lessens  the  impressiveness  of 
this  form,  and  justifies  its  term,  Feeble  Cadence.  When  the 
reader  can  follow  the  notation,  he  will  perceive  a  difierence 
between  the  effect  of  the  full  and  the  feeble  close  ;  and  will 
admit,  that  the  full  or  falling  triad  with  its  downward  vanishes, 
produces  a  more  satisfactory  feeling  of  repose. 

In  the  diagrams  of  the  cadence,  it  appears,  by  measuring 
from  the  radical  of  the  first  constituent,  to  the  extreme  of  the 
downward  vanish  of  the  last,  that  all  the  forms  except  the  fifth, 
embrace  the  interval  of  a  fourth.  And  though  I  have  marked 
this  last  form,  nominally  as  a  third,  yet  the  feeble  cadence  may 
be  made  by  an  extension  of  the  concrete,  downward  to  a  fourth 
or  fifth.  Nor  do  I  deny,  that  the  downward  concrete  of  all  the 
constituents,  may  not,  on  occasion,  reach  beyond  the  tone  here 
allotted  to  it.  I  have  assumed  the  interval  of  the  third  as  the 
characteristic  of  the  feeble  cadence,  because  it  is  the  smallest 
downward  interval  that  has,  in  its  place,  the  eftect  of  a  close. 
The  nature,  or,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  the  punctuative  intonation  of 
this  Feeble  cadence  is  such,  that  the  ear  allows  a  speaker  either 
to  pause  after  it,  or  to  proceed  in  his  discourse. 

A  proper  construction  of  the  cadence  is  essential  to  the  just 
melody  of  speech :  for  having  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  a 
close,  and  occurring  more  rarely  than  the  other  phrases,  it  does 
more  emphatically  affect  the  ear ;  wliile  its  position  at  the  pause, 


MELODY  OF  ^SPEECH.  155 

subjects  its  nature  and  effect  to  discriminative  attention.  It 
must  be  well  known  to  those  who  have  witnessed  the  efforts  of 
learners,  that  the  proper  management  of  a  close  of  the  voice 
in  reading,  is,  if  ever,  acquired  only  with  great  difficulty,  and 
after  a  length  of  time.  I  have  heard  offensive  deviations  from 
the  true  rule  of  the  cadence,  by  actors  of  long  practice  and  con- 
siderable skill,  who  would  have  guarded  their  utterance  against 
the  alleged  fault,  if  their  powers,  instead  of  being  exercised 
only  in  the  benumming  school  of  imitation,  had  been  directed 
by  that  free  and  energetic  spirit  which  well-observed  nature 
informs  us  should  govern  the  effective  purposes  of  speech. 

In  the  first  section  of  this  essay,  the  term  Key  was  defined, 
to  signify  a  certain  arrangement  of  the  constituents  of  the 
musical  scale :  and  I  now  proceed  to  inquire,  with  what  pro- 
priety the  term  is  applied  to  the  melodial  ranges  of  the  speaking 
voice. 

As  a  generic  term  in  music,  Key  designates  the  proper  suc- 
cession of  tones  and  semitones  in  the  diatonic  scale.  It  includes 
several  species  of  a  similar  order  of  successions,  carried  on 
from  each  of  the  several  places  of  the  scale,  as  the  beginning 
of  those  similar  orders.  It  was  shown  that  there  are  twelve 
keys,  founded  on  the  semitonic  divisions :  within  each  of  which, 
an  air  or  melody  may  be  restrictively  performed  ;  with  a  regu- 
lated method,  however,  of  conducting  that  melody,  by  what  is 
called  Modulation,  from  one  to  another,  through  the  whole 
twelve.  But  an  agreeable  melody  may  likewise  be  made  upon 
a  progression  of  the  scale,  with  the  semitones  differently  placed, 
from  those  of  the  progression,  described  in  the  first  section. 
This  gives  rise  to  two  different  ISIodes  of  the  diatonic  scale.  In 
one  a  semitone  lies  between  the  third  and  fourth  notes,  and 
between  the  seventh  and  the  octave,  as  taught  formerly ;  con- 
stituting the  kind  of  succession  called  the  Major  scale,  or  Mode. 
In  the  other,  a  semitone  lies  between  the  second  and  third  notes, 
and  the  fifth  and  sixth  in  descending  the  scale,  and  between  the 
second  and  third,  and  the  seventh  and  eighth  in  ascending; 
forming  the  succession  of  the  Minor  Mode.  Now,  as  there  are 
twelve  points  of  the  scale,  from  each  of  which  a  diatonic  series 


156  THE  DIATONIC 

• 

may  be  arranged,  so  there  may  be  twenty-four  keys :  twelve 
constructed  in  the  Major  mode,  and  twelve  in  the  Minor.  A 
melody  in  music,  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  formed  on  the 
series  of  the  latter  mode,  has  a  plaintive  expression  arising  from 
the  peculiar  position  of  the  semitones.  But  we  shall  learn  here- 
after, that  the  plaintiveness  of  speech  is  produced  by  an  entirely 
difterent  method  of  intonation. 

The  melody  of  Music,  whether  in  the  major  or  the  minor 
scale,  is  made  by  progressions,  both  of  skips  and  conjoint 
degrees,  through  a  series  of  five  tones  and  two  semitones,  in  a 
given  key ;  and  the  song  or  movement,  so  constructed,  is  termi- 
nated with  entire  satisfaction  to  the  ear,  when  brought  to  a 
close  on  the  first  point  of  the  series,  called  the  key  note. 

The  melody  of  plain  Narrative  or  unimpassioned  Speech  is 
made  by  progressions  of  conjoint  degrees  only ;  and  its  satis- 
factory close  at  a  period  of  discourse,  is  effected  by  a  descent  of 
its  radical  pitch  through  three  conjoint  degrees  with  a  downward 
concrete  from  the  last.  The  scale  of  the  speaking  voice  has  no 
fixed  place  for  semitones ;  nor  is  it  limited,  like  that  of  music, 
to  a  peculiar  arrangement  of  seven  constituent  intervals.  "When 
a  person  can  speak  distinctly  through  a  compass  of  ten  dia- 
tonic degrees,  included  between  the  low^est  pitch  of  articulate 
utterance  and  the  highest  point  of  the  natural  voice,  his  melody 
may,  by  the  use  of  a  succession  of  proper  conjoint  phrases,  be 
carried  in  the  following  manner,  through  any  wandering  cours^ 
of  ascent  and  descent,  within  these  boundaries.  Let  him  take 
his  first  syllable  on  the  first  place  of  this  supposed  range.  A 
ditone  will  raise  the  melody  to  the  second,  and  an  additional 
concrete,  on  that  second  place,  will  make  the  phrase  of  the 
monotone.  From  this,  a  ditone  will  lead  him  upwards  to  the 
third  place ;  and  in  like  manner  ascending,  the  melody  may  be 
carried  to  the  tenth.  Now  from  this  utmost  elevation,  a  falling 
ditone  will  bring  him  to  the  ninth :  a  monotone  on  this  will 
prepare  the  voice  for  another  ditone  descent  to  the  eighth. 
Having  by  a  similar  progress  reached  the  third  place,  the  triad 
of  the  cadence,  with  the  downward  concrete  of  its  final  con- 
stituent, will  close  the  melody  on  the  first. 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  157 

In  this  description,  the  melody  is  conducted  formally  up  and 
down,  in  order  to  elucidate  the  means  of  changing  the  pitch,  by 
avoiding  several  directly  successive  rising  or  falling  concretes. 
But  the  rising  tritone  may  also  be  used  in  ascending ;  while  the 
progress  may  be  varied  by  a  longer  monotone,  and  by  deferring 
the  rise  or  fall,  with  an  occasional  phrase  of  contrary  move- 
ment. It  is  by  avoiding  an  ascent  and  descent  of  more  than 
three  concretes  in  succession,  that  the  desirable  changes  through 
acuteness  and  gravity  in  speech,  may  be  effected  in  an  easy  and 
agreeable  manner :  for  the  beauty  of  melody  consists,  not  only 
in  skilfully  varying  the  order  of  phrases,  as  they  move  onwards, 
but  likewise  in  correctly  managing  the  rise  and  fall  through  the 
whole  compass  of  pitch.  The  following  notation  shows  the 
progress  of  the  voice,  through  a  compass  of  nine  diatonic  de- 
grees :  the  rule  of  the  rise  and  fall  being  observed,  and  the 
melody  being  therein  agreeably  diversified. 


If    thou 

dost 

slan — 

der  her 

and 

tor — ture   me, 

-r 

»C 

^     W 

^ 

tf   -     «r 

ir     0/ 

^ 

1 

Ne — ver 

pray 

more: 

a — ^ban — don    all 

re morse ; 

1 

^     d 

^ 

A 

^-^4    ^ 

^     tr 

^ 

^nr^ 

1 

On    hor ror's 

head 

hor — 

-rors 

ac cu — 

— mu — late ; 

1 

^      9i        ^ 

y 

^   «r 

d' 

^      ^ 

1 

Do     deeds     to     make 

Heaven    weep, 
mf 

all 

earth 

a mazed: 

§f 

-r^    ^ 

^ 

^         <i     1 

^   ti     tt  ^       '^                                      ^ 

158  THE  DIATONIC 

For  no-thing    canst  thou      to       dam — na — tion  mid, 


i**^^"?     if        €    ^    4^    ¥  ^- 


Great er  than         that. 


^ 

ti 

1 

^        -        ^      ^                                  1 

■V 

The  above  notation  is  designed  to  exemplify  exclusively,  the 
means  for  moving  through  the  compass  of  Speech.  If  it  were 
the  place  here,  to  represent  the  emphatic  intonation  of  this 
forcible  passage,  other  forms  of  both  the  radical  and  concrete 
pitch  would  be  used  and  explained.  This  subject  however,  will 
be  considered  hereafter.  At  the  two  colon  pauses,  which  in 
correct  reading  will  not  bear  a  full  close,  I  have  set  the  less 
conspicuous  interruption  of  the  feeble  cadence. 

Although  the  foregoing  account  of  the  musical  and  speaking 
scales,  represents  their  respective  constituent  intervals  and 
melodial  progressions,  so  widely  different  from  each  other ;  yet, 
as  the  several  keys  in  music  do  designate  different  degrees  of 
pitch,  and  as  the  expressive  effect  of  the  key-note  does  resemble 
that  of  the  cadence  in  speech,  there  would  seem  to  be  some 
similarity  between  them.  For  since  a  descent  in  speech,  of 
three  degrees  of  radical  pitch,  with  a  downward  vanish  from  the 
last,  always  produces  a  cadence,  and  affects  the  ear,  like  the 
consummation  of  a  key-note  in  music,  it  follows,  that  in  a  voice 
with  a  compass  of  ten  diatonic  degrees,  as  above  supposed,  every 
degree,  except  the  upper  two,  may  be  the  place  of  what  we  will 
here,  in  merely  supposing  the  case,  call  a  key-note  of  speech : 
and  consequently,  by  the  nature  and  relations  of  a  key-note  in 
music,  that  this  voice  might  be  said  to  have  eight  keys.  But 
there  would  be  an  unavoidable  difficulty  in  the  specification  of 
the  keys  of  spoken  melody.  When  a  musical  melody  is  said  to 
be  in  a  particular  key,  the  term  designates  exactly  the  position 
of  its  key-note.     But  the  melody  of  speech  cannot  properly  be 


I 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  159 

said,  to  be  in  any  one  key,  nor  to  have  any  fixed  place  for  a 
key-note ;  for  it  may  be  terminated  by  a  triad  of  the  cadence, 
at  any  place  of  the  scale.  The  constituents  of  the  monotone 
are  the  only  fragments  of  melody,  to  which  the  doctrine  of  key 
could  be  applied,  for  they  would  all  have  the  same  cadencial 
close.  When  a  cadence  is  made  on  any  of  the  other  phrases, 
the  triad  which  descends  to  a  close  from  one  of  its  constituents, 
must  differ  from  the  triad  desending  from  another. 

Such  being  the  fruitless  purpose  of  attempting  to  designate 
the  key  of  a  single  phrase,  how  much  more  indefinitely  must  a 
particular  key  be  affirmed  of  a  current  melody  composed  of  a 
continually  varying  succession  of  phrases.  The  true  place  of  key 
can  be  affirmed  only  of  the  first  constituent  of  the  cadence 
itself,  because  the  succession  of  its  last  two,  and  the  place  of  its 
closing  concrete,  with  regard  to  the  first,  are  unalterably  fixed. 
Looking  on  the  first  constituent  of  the  triad  as  determining  the 
idea  of  key,  when  applied  to  speech,  a  particular  key  may  be 
appropriated  to  each  degree  of  the  whole  compass,  except  the 
lower  two ;  and  consequently  the  key,  if  it  can  so  be  called,  of 
a  current  melody  must  perpetually  change. 

The  peculiar  series  of  tone  and  semitone,  in  the  scales  of 
music ;  the  necessity  for  rules  of  modulation,  to  govern  the 
change  from  one  series  to  another  ;  together  with  the  purposes 
of  Concerting,  and  of  Harmonic  composition,  led  to  the  definite 
nomenclature  and  arrangement  of  musical  keys.  But  a  melo- 
dial  progression  by  the  speaking  scale,  formed  exclusively  of 
whole  tones,  and  the  unaccompanied,  or  strictly  solo-vocal  office 
of  speech,  do  not  require  the  use  of  Key :  and  the  designations 
of  its  range  and  form  of  melody,  perhaps  call  for  no  nearer 
precision  than  that  of  a  classification  into  the  upper,  middle, 
and  lower  pitch  of  the  voice.  There  is  therefore  no  Key  in 
Speech. 

From  this  view  of  the  speaking  voice,  it  may  be  understood, 
why  in  the  notation  of  its  melody  I  have  used  only  the  staff  of 
the  musical  tablature,  without  reference  to  its  cliffs  or  its  signa- 
natures.  Cliffs  are  used  in  music  for  the  purposes  of  Concerting ; 
by  determining  with  precision   the  proper  places  of  pitch,  for 


160  THE  DIATONIC 

several  voices  or  instruments,  when  moving  in  accompaniment. 
They  are  therefore  useless  to  the  singleness  of  speech.  The 
melotly  of  Narrative  does  not  require  the  System  of  Key,  and 
the  Signature  of  Flats  and  Sharps,  which  are  necessary  in  the 
musical  scale,  from  the  position  of  its  semitones.  The  naked 
lines  and  spaces  of  the  Staff,  denoting  the  proximate  succession 
of  a  tone,  afford  the  proper  and  suflBcient  means  for  illustrating 
the  inexpressive  intonation  of  speech. 

The  term  modulation  is  used,  in  music,  to  signify  the  transi- 
tions of  melody,  and  of  harmonic  composition,  from  one  key  to 
another.  A  consideration  of  the  propriety  of  using  this  term  to 
signify  similar  changes  in  the  melody  of  speech,  is  involved 
in  the  question,  of  the  propriety  of  applying  the  musical  term 
key  to  the  mere  variations  of  pitch  in  the  speaking  voice  :  and 
we  have  seen  the  almost  universal  difference  hetween  the  regular 
system  of  keys  in  music,  and  the  melodial  method  of  speech. 

The  preceding  remarks,  on  the  musical  and  speaking  scales, 
were  intended  to  exhibit  the  relationships  between  their  respec- 
tive functions:  but  it  appears  from  comparison, —  there  is  no 
systematic  analogy  to  justify  the  transfer  of  the  term  key, — 
and  modulation,  which  is  merely  the  practical  use  of  Key, — 
from  music  to  speech.  The  transfer  was,  however,  long  ago 
made,  and  the  terms  are  still  continued,  under  a  total  ignorance 
of  the  nature  of  the  speaking  scale.  When  the  truth  of  the 
analysis,  set  forth  in  this  section,  shall  be  admitted,  it  will  be 
obligatory  on  all  those  who  derive  pleasure  or  benefit  from 
accuracy  of  knowledge,  to  distinguish,  by  appropriate  names, 
those  ideas  which  negligence  may  have  suffered  to  pass  as  identi- 
cal. If  the  musical  terms,  key,  and  modulation,  had  not  received 
an  unmeaning  admission  into  the  nomenclature  of  the  speaking 
voice,  the  description  of  its  melody  would  not,  in  these  last 
pages,  have  been  complicated  with  a  record  of  the  waste  work 
of  investigation,  which  the  inquirer  is  ready  to  expunge  and 
forget,  Avhen  he  has  made  his  simple  statement  of  truth.  And 
had  the  hitherto  untried  subject  of  melody  been  relieved  from 
the  blinding  consequences  of  that  erroneous  nomenclature,  the 
unargued  and  unbiased  history  of  its  changes  could  have  been 
thus  more  briefly  described  :     The  melody  of  the  speaking  voice, 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  161 

may  be  led,  ascending  and  descending,  through  its  whole  com- 
pass, by  a  succession,  exclusively  of  whole  tones  :  and  may  from 
any  point,  be  brought  to  the  satisfactory  close  of  a  full  period  of 
discourse,  by  the  descent  of  three  radicals  through  conjoint 
degrees,  with  a  downward  concrete  on  the  last. 

If  I  have  not  here  followed  the  preferred  brevity,  nor  omitted 
the  detail  which  produced  the  conclusion,  that  the  doctrine  of 
key  and  modulation  is  not  applicable  to  speech;  it  was,  because 
I  certainly  anticipated  the  inquiries, —  a  habit  of  erroneous 
nomenclature  would  suggest ;  and  because  I  chose,  perhaps 
advantageously,  to  introduce  into  the  recorded  investigation, 
some  further  or  varied  remarks  on  the  melody  of  speech. 

In  reviewing  the  subject  just  closed,  I  fear  the  described  phe- 
nomena of  the  voice  may  not  be  immediately  recognized,  nor 
the  system  of  their  combination  definitely  comprehended.  The 
difficulties  in  this  case  may  proceed,  not  only  from  the  inaptitude 
of  the  mind  to  embrace  newly  offered  subjects  of  knowledge, 
but  likewise  from  the  connected  system  of  such  subjects,  being 
dimly  arrayed  before  the  very  sense  which  was  able  to  discover 
their  insulated  truths.  The  art  of  observation  is  but  a  matter 
of  apprenticeship  and  practice ;  and  it  is  the  time  of  employ 
no  less  than  the  manner,  that  contributes  to  the  enduring  excel- 
lence of  a  master.  Thoughts,  not  impressed  by  the  deep  sealing 
of  time,  nor  familiarized  by  the  close  acquaintance  of  habit,  are 
feeble  or  deluding  agents  in  the  arduous  task  of  comparison  and 
arrangement :  for  it  will  be  found  that  the  author  who  first 
institutes,  or  who  comprehensively  renovates  a  science,  rarely 
adds  the  clearest  economy  of  system  to  his  work.  To  look 
widely,  yet  closely,  is  the  paradox  of  the  powers  of  heaven : 
and  he  who  can  span  the  broad  compass  of  a  science,  while  he 
touches  its  divisions  and  points,  is  partially  raised  above  the 
bounded  prospects  of  humanity,  by  this  humble  tendency 
towards  omniscience.  To  him  is  due  that  rich  compliment  by 
the  contemplative  Greek  ;  Avho  knowing  upon  what  transcendent 
faculty  to  place  the  crown  of  intellectual  glory,  declared,  that 
he  who  can  Arrange  and  Define  well,  might  be  fit  company 
for  the  Gods. 


162  QUALITY  OF  VOICE. 


SECTION  IX. 

Of  the  Quality  or  Kind  of  Voice. 

Quality  or  Kind  is  one  of  the  five  Modes  of  speech.  Its 
principal  forms  are  the  Whispering,  the  Natural,  the  Falsette, 
and  the  Orotund  Voices,  together  with  those  embraced  by  the 
common  nomenclature  of  harsh,  hoarse,  rough,  smooth,  full, 
thin,  and  musical.  Quality  is,  as  it  were  the  material  of  speech; 
and  many  of  its  forms  are  employed  for  the  purpose  of  expres- 
sion. 

There  are  certain  conditions  of  the  mind  instinctively  associated 
with  appropriate  forms  of  quality.  The  whisper  as  an  articu- 
lation, denotes  the  intention  of  secrecy :  the  falsette  is  used  for 
the  emphatic  scream  of  terror,  pain  and  surprise  :  and  the  oro- 
tund voice  alone  gives  satisfactory  expression  to  the  feeling  of 
dignity  and  deliberation.  The  natural  voice  is  accommodated 
to  the  moderate  or  lively  sentiments  of  colloquial  dialogue,  and 
familiar  reading.  It  is  not  necessary  to  particularize  here,  the 
sentiments,  calling  respectively  for  a  harsh,  full,  rude  or  cour- 
teous quality.  The  history  of  their  specific  appropriation,  in 
the  art  of  reading,  may  be  learned  from  books. 

Regarding  these  forms  of  quality  as  distributed  among 
mankind,  some  voices  are  restricted  to  the  harsh,  or  to  the 
meager.  Few  persons  have  by  nature,  a  pure  orotund.  Some 
speak  altogther  in  falsette ;  and  women  are  apt  to  use  it  in 
careless  pronunciation.  Most  voices  however,  may  by  diligent 
cultivation,  be  improved  in  quality. 

This  mode  of  the  voice  is  not  to  be  regarded  solely  in  'the 
simple  and  insulated  light,  here  represented.  It  is  susceptible 
of  combination  with  force,  time,  pitch,  and  abruptness.*  In 
short.  Quality  must  necessarily  be  united  with  some  of  the  forms 
and  varieties  of  the  other  modes.  It  must  be  either  strong  or 
weak ;  its  time  must  be  long  or  short ;  its   emission  will  be 


ABRUPTNESS  OF -SPEECH.  163 

abrupt  or  gradual ;  and  it  must  be  of  some  definite  radical  or 
concrete  pitch.  Certain  forms  of  quality  are  however,  exclu- 
sively congenial  with  particular  conditions  of  these  other  modes : 
thus  smoothness  will  more  generally  affect  the  moderate  degrees 
of  force.  Similar  congenialities  may  be  discovered  by  the 
slighest  reflection. 

It  would  be  easy  to  select  from  authors  and  from  familiar  dis- 
course, phrases  or  sentences,  requiring  respectively,  the  forms  of 
quality  here  enumerated.  But  I  designed  originally,  to  limit  the 
pages  of  this  work,  consistently  with  the  purpose  of  definite 
description :  aiming  to  make  known  the  hitherto  unrecorded 
phenomena  of  speech,  rather  than  to  add  to  the  present  excess 
of  compilation.  No  diagram  can  represent  these  qualities  of 
sound :  and  every  attempt  to  make  them  plainer  than  they 
are  under  their  metaphorical  designation,  would  be  without 
success. 


SECTION  X. 

Of  Abruptness  of  Speech. 

On  the  first  publication  of  this  work,  I  anticipated  objections 
to  the  classification  of  Abruptness,  separately  from  Force.  I 
now  in  the  fourth  edition,  add  this  section,  to  state  some  of  the 
grounds  of  that  classification.  I  had  not  proceeded  twenty 
pages,  in  the  first  desultory  record  of  my  observations  on  the 
voice,  before  the  fulness  of  the  radical  opening  was  perceived 
to  be  a  fact  of  very  general  occurrence  in  speech.  On  observ- 
ing further,  its  cause  was  traced  to  a  certain  occlusion  of  the 
breath ;  and  this  was  found  to  be  an  important  and  peculiar 
agent  in  the  production  of  accent,  emphasis,  and  syllabication. 
Finding,  it  could  not  be  very  precisely  arranged  under    the 


164  ABRUPTNESS  OF  SPEECH. 

mode  of  Force,  to  which  it  is  partially  related,  I  resolved  to 
make  it  a  mode  by  itself:  yet  a  mode  -with  differences  in  degree 
only,  and  not  in  form  ;  and  unlike  every  other  mode,  in  having 
but  one  solitary  position  in  speech, —  at  the  opening  of  the  radi- 
cal. It  is  a  manner,  as  it  were,  of  enforcing  Force,  not  merely  by 
a  higher  degree  of  that  force,  but  by  another  and  peculiar  mode. 
That  is,  abruptness  may  be  added  to  force,  to  render  it  more 
emphatic  ;  just  as  force  may  be  added  to  intonation,  to  enhance 
its  expression ;  or  as  any  one  mode  of  the  voice  may  be  united 
with  another,  for  an  additional  or  peculiar  effect :  thus  making 
them,  each  with  the  other,  co-eflBcient  but  not  identical  causes. 

The  mechanism  and  action  that  produce  this  Abruptness,  or 
expression,  consist  in  an  occlusion  of  some  vocal  passage,  and 
a  forcing  of  the  breath  against  that  obstruction,  till  the  voice 
issues  with  a  sudden  opening  of  the  occlusion.  Thus  it  appears 
to  be  but  a  momentary  function ;  and  so  far  distinguished  from 
force,  which  is  essentially  made  on  some  duration  of  time,  quality 
or  intonation ;  for  force  to  be  strong  and  momentary,  must  be 
abrupt.  But  further,  abruptness  may  be  equally  applied  to  the 
initial  of  quality,  to  make  its  harshness  more  shocking ;  of  the 
orotund,  to  make  the  fulness  of  its  radical  more  dignified  and 
impressive ;  and  of  pitch,  to  mark  conspicuously  its  places  on 
the  scale.  We  have  shown,  on  what  occasions  it  governs  the 
construction  of  syllables.  We  shall  learn  hereafter,  how  it 
effects  clearness  of  articulation ;  how,  in  its  moderate  degrees, 
—  for  it  is  here  plainly  contradistinguished  from  force, —  it  is 
the  principal  formative  cause  of  the  tremulous  scale ;  and  how 
it  is  related  to  the  Shake  of  Song.  Although  the  voice,  without 
this  natural  abruptness,  would  want  one  of  its  striking  and 
essential  characteristics,  and  fail  in  one  of  its  important  uses, 
for  emphasis  and  distinct  articulation :  yet  the  full  and  ready 
power  over  this  means  of  energetic  speech  is  possessed  by  few, 
and  is  only  acquired  by  attention  and  strenuous  effort.  When 
in  an  individual,  it  seems  to  be  natural,  it  is  by  animal  instinct, 
the  indication  of  an  excitable  nervous  and  muscular  system ; 
but  not  necessarily  of  a  quick  or  effective  intellect.  The  explo- 
sive   bark  of   the  dog,  and    the  short,  abrupt,  and   repeated 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  165 

syllable-like  'put  of  the  strutting  turkey,  are  with  each,  as  much 
a  sign  of  mere  animal  anger,  and  unconscious  vanity,  as  a  like 
abruptness  would  be  of  some  of  the  vulgar  passions  of  ignorant 
man. 

To  this  explosion  of  the  voice,  which  as  the  means  of  articu- 
lation and  expression,  has  never  been  recognized,  or  has  received 
but  a  transient  and  heedless  notice,  we  have  occasion  to  make' 
continual  reference,  in  the  course  of  this  work.  Its  most 
remarkable  employment  will  hereafter  be  shown,  in  the  full  and 
sudden  opening  of  the  radical  movement.  This  Radical  stress, 
as  we  call  it,  will  be  classed  under  the  Mode  of  Force,  not  there- 
fore regarding  it  as  belonging  to  that  place  ;  but  merely  to  connect 
it  in  order,  with  two  of  the  other  stresses  which,  having  no 
abruptness,  are  properly  included  under  the  Mode  of  Force. 


SECTION  XL 

Of  the  Time  of  the   Voice. 

Two  of  the  cherished  relationships  of  man  to  man,  are  selfish- 
ness and  emulation.  Accustomed  therefore  to  regard  himself  in 
the  light  of  personal  importance,  and  of  relative  position,  he  is 
prone  to  look  for  consequence  and  rank  in  natural  things.  But 
nature  affects  neither  egotism  nor  precedence.  When  the  five 
modes  of  the  voice  are  brought  before  us,  we  have  that  active 
leaven  of  human  curiosity,  to  discover  which  is  the  most  import- 
ant. But  all  are  essential  and  equal  in  the  scheme  of  creation : 
where  alone,  the  Republican  Idea  does,  or  perhaps  ever  can 
present  itself.  Considering  Quality, —  or  its  Substratum  as  no- 
tional metaphysicians  would  call  it, —  to  be  the  material  of  the 
voice,  we  see  the  necessity  of  its  universality:  and  we  shall 


166  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

find  that  Time,  tlie  mode  wo  arc  now  about  to  consider,  is  an 
equally  pervading  constituent  of  speech. 

The  degrees  in  duration  or  in  the  time  of  the  voice,  are  repre- 
sented though  indefinitely,  by  the  terms,  long,  short,  quick,  and 
slow ;  and  are  variously  used,  both  for  simple  narrative,  and  for 
expression. 

To  be  definite,  let  long  and  short  designate  the  time  of  the 
syllables  relatively  to  each  other ;  and  quick  and  slow,  the 
utterance  of  any  series  or  aggregate  of  words.  Thus  a  syllable 
is  said  to  have  a  long  or  short  time,  or  Quantity,  as  it  is  called 
in  this  case ;  while  a  phrase,  an  entire  sentence,  or  a  larger 
portion  of  discourse  is  said  to  be  pronounced  in  quick  or  slow 
time.  The  occasions  for  employing  these  last  divisions  of  time 
are  well  known.  Sentiments  of  dignity,  deliberation,  doubt, 
and  grief  aflect  a  slow  time ;  those  of  gaiety,  anger,  and  eager 
argument,  together  with  parenthetic  phrases,  assume  the  quick 
time  in  utterance. 

It  is  necessary,  however,  to  be  more  particular,  on  the  time 
of  individual  syllables,  comparatively  considered  ;  and  to  regard 
them  otherwise  than  under  their  ordinary  prosodial  distinctions. 
The  times  of  syllables  exhibit  undistinguishable  shades  of 
difference,  from  the  shortest  utterable,  to  their  utmost  prolonga- 
tion in  oratorical  expression.  To  reduce  this  indefinite  view  to 
available  divisions,  for  future  reference,  we  will  arrange  syllables 
under  three  classes.  Let  the  First  embrace  those  restricted  to 
the  shortest  quantity :  the  Second,  those  limited  to  a  quantity 
somewhat  greater  than  that  of  the  first :  the  Third,  those,  of  a 
quantity,  varying  from  the  shortest,  to  even  an  indefinite  pro- 
longation. 

To  the  First  class  belong  many  of  those  syllables,  terminated 
by  an  abrupt  clement ;  and  containing  a  tonic,  or  an  additional 
subtonic,  or  the  further  addition  of  an  atonic,  such  as  at,  ap, 
ek,  7iap-less,  pz'f-fall,  ac-cep-tance.  It  is  not  the  shortness  alone 
of  syllables  that  constitutes  the  criterion  of  this  class ;  since 
some,  belonging  to  the  third,  may  be,  and  sometimes  are,  in 
common  usage,  equally  short.  The  syllables  now  under  con- 
sideration, have  this  essential  characteristic;  they  cannot  be 


THE  TIME   OF  THE  VOICE.  167 

prolonged,  but  with  deformed  pronunciation.  The  word  convict, 
■when  accented  on  the  first  syllable  as  a  noun,  and  on  the  last 
as  a  verb  has,  in  simple  utterance,  a  certain  quantity  allotted 
to  the  accented  syllable.  If,  'for  the  purpose  of  oratorical 
expression,  with  the  noun,  the  time  of  the  first  syllable  is  indefi- 
nitely prolonged,  the  identical  character  of  the  word  still  remains, 
notwithstanding  that  extension.  But  when  we  give  the  last 
syllable  of  the  verb,  to  convict,  a  similar  extension,  its  drawling 
pronunciation  is  remarkably  deformed.  The  syllables  assigned 
to  the  first  class,  not  admitting  of  any  alteration  in  quantity, 
may  be  called  Immutable  syllables.  I  shall  hereafter  show 
their  relations  to  the  movements  of  pitch,  and  to  the  functions 
of  accent  and  emphasis. 

To  the  Second  class  belong  most  of  those  syllables,  terminated 
by  an  abrupt  element,  and  containing  one  or  more  subtonics  or 
atonies,  with  a  short  tonic.  The  subtonic  in  this  case,  allows  an 
additional  time  greater  than  that  of  syllables  in  the  preceding 
class ;  while  the  abrupt  element  and  the  short  tonic,  limit  even 
this  moderate  extension.  Of  this  class  are  i/et,  what,  Up, 
grat-itu.de,  des-^rwc-tion.  In  these  instances  the  syllables  are 
longer  than  those  of  the  immutable  class ;  and  for  the  purpose 
of  expression,  the  subtonics  may  be  slightly  extended  beyond 
their  length,  in  simple  utterance.  But  with  undue  prolongation, 
they  have  the  same  offensive  drawl,  perceived  in  the  forced 
extension  of  the  immutable  class.  As  those  included  under  the 
present  head  admit  of  a  slight  change  in  quantity,  they  may  be 
called  Mutable  syllables. 

To  the  Third  class  belong  all  those  syllables,  terminated  by  a 
tonic  element,  or  a  subtonic,  except  b,  d,  and  g.  Of  this 
nature,  are  go,  thee,  for,  day,  man,  till,  de-lay,  he-guile, 
ex-treme,  and  er-fo-neous.  If  the  speaker  has  a  ready  com- 
mand over  the  subtonics  b,  d,  and  g,  so  as  to  give  full  audibility 
to  their  essential  guttural  murmur,  their  position,  at  the  end  of 
a  syllable,  does  not  absolutely  prevent  an  indefinite  prolonga- 
tion, as  in  the  words  deed,  plague,  babe,  res-tored.  But  the 
effect  in  these  cases,  is  by  no  means  to  be  compared  with  that  of 
an  extension  of  time  upon  other  subtonics,  and  on  tonics.     In 


168  THE  TIME  OP  THE  VOICE. 

the  above  pure  examples  of  this  class,  it  will  be  found,  that  to 
whatever  necessary  degree  the  quantity  may  be  prolonged,  the 
character  of  the  syllable  will  still  be  preserved,  without  the  dis- 
agreeable eflfect,  produced  ^y'an  indefinite  increase  of  time, 
under  the  preceding  classes.  It  is  the  peculiar  nature  of  these 
syllables,  that  they  seem  to  be  the  same,  under  every  degree  of 
prolongation  ;  while  the  immutable  and  mutable,  in  some  cases 
almost  lose  their  identity,  by  too  great  an  addition  to  their  time. 
From  their  allowable  variety,  the  syllables  o£  this  class  may  be 
said  to  be  of  indefinite  quantity ;  and  may  be  called  Indefinite 
syllables.  They  furnish  important  means  for  the  expression  of 
speech ;  some  of  its  most  eficctive  forms,  being  made  on  sylla- 
bles, with  this  power  of  indefinite  prolongation. 

The  reader^  is  to  receive  the  foregoing  classification,  as  one 
adapted  to  our  view  of  the  expressive  powers  of  time.  The 
investigation  of  the  causes  of  expression,  soon  suggested  the 
necessity  of  other  distinctions  of  quantity,  than  those  of  long 
and  short ;  which,  after  a  millennium  and  more,  of  pretending 
observation,  we  continue  to  transcribe  from  the  meager  record  of 
Greek  and  Latin  prosody.  The  phenomena  of  expression  first 
directed  the  division  here  made ;  and  however  it  may  be  other- 
wise applied,  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  explanation  of  future 
parts  of  this  essay.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  its  sufficiency, 
I  must  still  believe  it  is  high  time  for  the  superannuated  sages 
of  classical  literature  to  throw  aside  the  Greek  and  Roman 
auscultation  in  their  prosodial  researches ;  and  try  if  time,  with 
a  new  vocal  analysis,  may  not  cfi'ect  upon  them  one  of  those 
renovations  of  sense,  which,  it  is  said,  have  now  and  then  resus- 
citated the  torpid  perceptions  of  extreme  longevity. 

The  power  of  giving  indefinite  prolongation  to  syllables,  for  the 
purpose  of  expression,  is  not  commonly  possessed  by  speakers. 
It  is  true,  the  daily  use  of  the  voice  frequently  calls  for  forcible 
expression :  but  daily  discourse  is  often  mere  narrative  or 
description ;  or  if  directed  by  strong  emotion,  its  sentiments 
are  those  of  active  argument,  or  of  contending  interests,  which 
employ,  for  the  most  part,  the  short  time  of  syllables  and  the 
quick  course  of   utterance.     Still,  the  assertion  that    a   long 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  169 

quantity  is  not  easily  practicable,  may  seem  to  be  questionable : 
since  persons  "who  sing,  protract  their  notes  to  an  indefinite 
length ;  and  all  utter  interjections  and  cries  in  the  same  manner. 
But  these  voices  are  generally  made  on  prolonged  notes  ;  Avhile 
the  difficulty,  to  which:  we  here  allude,  is  in  the  execution  of 
the  equable  concrete  of  speech.  We  have  shown  that  differ- 
ent forms  of  the  radical  and  vanish  are  respectively  employed 
in  speech;  and  song.  Without  attention  to  the  nature  and  use 
of  these  differences,  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  restrict  them  to 
their  appropriate  places.  A  reader  who  has  not  by  practice,  a 
facility  in  executing  the  prolonged  quantity  of  speech,  will  be 
liable,  in  extending  his  syllables,  to  fall  into  the  protracted  radi- 
cal or  protracted  vanish.  On  the  other  hand,  when  persons 
without  a  musical  ear  and  a  singing-voice,  imperfectly  re- 
member and  endeavor  to  imitate,  the  melodial  successions  of 
song,  they  are  apt  to  utter  many  of  its  notes,  in  the  equable 
concrete  of  speech.  Prolonged  cries,  and  interjections  which 
are  only  more  moderate  cries,  are  always  made  either  by  the 
protracted  notes  of  song ;  or  by  the  wave ;  or  by  movements 
through  the  wider  intervals  of  the  scale :  and  though  these 
intervals  and  the  wave  are  both  proper  to  speech,  yet  the  pro- 
longed cry  and  interjection  are  the  forced  effect  of  passion ; 
which  not  operating  to  this  degree,  on  the  ordinary  occasions 
of  reading  and  speech,  the  cause  is  not  habitual,  and  the  prac- 
tice not  confirmed. 

The  foregoing  notice  of  the  exclusion  of  the  peculiar  intonations 
of  song  from  speech,  furnishes  one  reason  why  persons,  of  great 
accomplishment  as  singers,  are  nevertheless  indifferent  readers 
or  common-place  actors.  In  its  proper  place,  other  causes  will 
be  assigned  for  the  general  want  of  interchangeable  facility,  in 
the  exercise  of  the  arts  of  song  and  speech.  That  arising  from 
the  different  structures  of  the  radical  and  vanish  in  the  two  cases, 
is  not  the  least  influential.  The  endowed  singer  may  have  at 
command  all  the  means  of  expression,  used  in  song.  But  these  are 
not  tranfcrable  to  speech ;  and  while  he  is  able  to  clothe  every 
sentiment  of  the  melody,  with  the  long-drawn  notes  of  the  Com- 
12 


170  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

poser,  his  attempts  at  recitation,  strip  off  or  tear  to  pieces,  every 
feeling  embraced  by  the  equable  concrete  of  the  Poet's  words. 

But  to  return  from  this  account  of  different  forms  of  the  con- 
crete, to  the  consideration  of  the  uses  of  its  Varied  quantity.  The 
immutable,  mutable,  and  indefinite  time  of  syllables,  has  each 
its  appropriate  manner  of  fulfilling  the  purposes  of  expression. 
But  the  use  of  an  indefinite  time,  for  some  of  its  higher  effects, 
is  of  great  and  pervading  importance  in  speech.  This  subject 
•will  be  illustrated  in  future  parts  of  this  essay.  Readers  -nho 
are  ignorant  of  the  principles  of  quantity,  are  yet  aware  of  the 
necessity  of  a  deliberate  movement,  for  the  expression  of  certain 
sentiments.  They  therefore,  endeavor  to  obviate  the  difficulty 
of  making  a  long  syllabic  quantity,  by  slight  pauses  between 
words,  and  even  between  syllables.  But  propriety  and  taste 
allow  no  compensation  of  this  sort :  they  require  most  of  the 
prolonged  time  in  dignified  expression,  to  be  spent  on  the  sylla- 
ble itself,  and  reject  the  other  means,  as  offensive  monotony  or 
affectation. 

Eminent  instances  of  the  essential  importance  of  long  quan- 
tity may  be  shown,  by  considering  the  syllabic  construction  of 
sentences  with  reference  to  expression:  for  since  the  display  of 
certain  sentiments  requires  the  prolonged  time  of  indefinite  sylla- 
bles, it  may  happen  that  such  sentiments  are  to  be  expressed  on 
the  limited  duration  of  a  mutable,  or  the  mere  moment  of 
an  immutable  time.  I  here  illustrate  my  meaning  by  a  passage 
from  the  fourth  book  of  Paradise  Lost.,  where  Satan  is  brought 
before  Gabriel.  In  the  dialogue  between  them,  one  of  the 
replications  of  Satan  is  as  follows : 

Not  that  I  less  'endure,'  or  shrink  from  pain, 
In-sult-mg  angel !  well  thou  know'st  I  stood 
Thy  ferc-est,  when  in  battle  to  thy  aid, 
The  blasting  vollied  thunder  made  all  speed, 
And  seconded  thy  else  not  drcad-ed  spear. 
But  still  thy  words  at  random,  as  before. 
Argue  th}-  inexperience  what  behoves 
From  hard  assays  and  ill  successes  past 
A  faithful  leader,  not  to  hazard  'all' 
Through  waj-s  of  danger  bj-  himself  untried : 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  171 

'I,' therefore,  T  'alone'   first  undertook 

To  wing  the  desolate  abyss,  and  spy 

This  new  created  world,  whereof  in  ITcU 

Fame  is  not  silent,  here  in  hope  to  find 

Better  abode,  and  my  afflicted  powers 

To  settle  here  on  earth,  or  in  mid  air; 

Though  for  possession  put  to  try  once  more 

What  thou  and  thy  gay  legions  '  dare'  against ; 

Whose  easier  business  were  to  *  serve'  their  '  Lord' 

High  up  in  Heaven,  with  songs  to  hymu  his  throne, 

And  practis'd  distances  to  'cringe,'  not  Jiyht. 

The  language  of  this  extract  is  variously  made  up  of  argu- 
ment, narrative,  and  feeling.     We  here  refer  to  the  last.     I 
have  marked  in  italics,  some  of  the  syllables  representing  these 
feelings,  but  which  are  incapable  of  prolongation.     The  sylla- 
bles, less^  shrink,  suit,  fierce,  else,  and  dread,  belong  to  our 
class  of  mutables,  yet  they  cannot  bo  extended,  without  making, 
in  the  several  cases,  the  prolonged  radical  on  I,  e,  and  r ;  and 
this  would  change  the  pronunciation  to  a  drawl.     Now  let  us 
suppose  less,  taken  with  endure,  to  embrace  the  sentiments  of 
suifering  and  resignation  ;  shrink,  those  of  taunt  and  exultation  ; 
suit,  those  of  complaint,  pride  and   reproach ;  fierce,  the  senti- 
ment of  scornful  defiance :  else,  a  condition  of  self  confidence 
and  contempt;  and  dread,  when  interpreted  by  the  preceding 
exceptive,  else,  a  similar  condition  of  self-relying  courage.    The 
expression  of  all  these  sentiments,  as  we  shall  learn  hereafter, 
calls  for  a  prolonged  quantity,  on  the   wider  intervals  of  pitch, 
and  on  the  Avave ;  which  the  shortness  of  the  elemental  sounds, 
in  the  above  emphatic  syllables,  does  not  allow.     The   emphasis 
of  stress  might  indeed  be  laid  upon   them,  but  this  would  not 
express  their  purpose.     The  last  marked  phrase  of  the  fore- 
going  extract,   afifords   a  more   conspicuous  illustration   of  the 
subject  before  us :  for  of  the  words  not  fight,  the  first  is  only 
mutable ;  and  the  last  being  strictly  immutable,  does  not  admit  of 
extension,  without  a  disagreeable  departure  from  correct  pronun- 
ciation.    Now  the  sentiments  of  this  phrase  being  those  of  strong 
contempt  and  exultation,  their  expressive  intonation  should  be 
made  upon  an   indefinite  time.     A  reader  of  discernment,  and 


172  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

of  delicate  feeling  can  never  satisfy  bis  ear  on  these  restricted 
quantities.  I  have  in  the  same  extract,  marked  Avith  commas, 
a  few  words,  embracing  sentiments  that  call  for  wide  intervals 
on  an  extended  time ;  and  these  words  by  their  power  of  indefi- 
nite prolongation  fulfill  every  purpose  of  expression. 

I  add  here  another  exemplification  of  this  subject,  from  that 
magnificicnt  picture  of  Satan's  Imperial  Presence  in  Pandemo- 
nium, at  the  opening  of  the  second  book  of  Paradise  Lost. 

High  on  a  throne  of  royal  state,  which  far 
Outshone  the  •wealth  of  Ormus  and  of  Ind, 
Or  where  the  gorgeous  East  with  richest  hand 
Showers  on  her  Kings  barbaric  pearl  and  gold, 
Satan  exalted  sat. 

In  these  lines,  Milton,  with  a  just  instinct  of  versification, 
has  employed  long  quantities,  in  happy  adaptation  to  the  stately 
sentiment  of  the  description. 

I  use  here,  rather  remarkably,  the  term  instinct  of  versifica- 
tioji,  not  in  oversight  of  the  bright  intelligence  with  which  this 
extraordinary  man  executed  every  high  design  and  every  tittle  of 
his  work ;  but  because  it  is  clearly  seen,  he  did  not  intend  to 
construct  the  measure  of  his  poem  by  the  rules  of  quantity 
alone.  The  development  of  the  full  resources  of  the  accentual 
measure  by  Milton,  was  a  new  and  absorbing  labor.  Had  this 
advance-step  preceded  him,  the  originality  and  restless  enter- 
prise of  his  genius,  would  most  probably  have  joined  with  the 
many  principles  of  Greek  and  Roman  composition,  so  happily 
transferred  to  his  own  language,  the  accomplishment  of  the  sup- 
posed impossibility  of  adopting  the  rules  of  their  ry thmus.  In  the 
above  example,  where  the  majesty  of  his  thought  secured  so 
much  homage  from  his  ear,  some  of  the  quantities  suddenly 
arrest  the  perception  of  continued  movement  and  deliberate 
dignity,  produced  by  the  protracted  time  of  the  generality  of  the 
measure.  The  syllables  state,  rich,  and  sat,  are  too  short 
for  the  otherwise  good  iambic  temporal  ry  thmus  of  these  lines ; 
and  the  word  harharic  occasions  some  irregular  contrariety  in 
the  impressions  of  quantity  and  accent.  In  the  abstract  pro- 
nunciation of   this  word,   the  first  syllable,  bar,  is   somewhat 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  173 

longer  than  the  second,  -which  will  not,  in  this  case,  bear  unusual 
extension.  But  the  longer  syllable  is  here  in  the  place  of  the 
weak  syllable  of  iambic  accent ;  and  the  impressiveness  of  ex- 
ceeding length  thus  reverses  the  succession  of  the  prevailing 
rythraus.  Nor  does  the  simple  meaning  of  the  epithet  barbaric, 
allow  a  sufficient  degree  of  accentual  stress  on  the  second  sylla- 
ble, to  overrule  the  impressiveness  of  greater  length  in  the 
first.  If  the  reader,  excusing  the  rhetorical  change,  will  substitute 
the  adjective  orient  for  bay-baric,  he  will  perceive  by  compari- 
son, the  difference  between  the  accentual  and  the  temporal 
rythmus. 

Showers  on  |  her  kings  |  her  or  |  lent  pearl  |  and  gold. 

Now  whether  the  first  and  the  fourth  is  considered  respectively 
in  order,  a  trochee  and  an  iambus,  as  here  marked,  or  as  a  dactyl 
and  an  anapasst,  as  they  may  be  read,  consistently  with  the 
genius  of  our  iambic  measure,  the  admissible  prolongation  of 
the  indefinite  syllable  or,  produces  a  dignity  of  utterance  that 
cannot  be  effected  on  the  short  time  of  the  accented  syllable  of 
barbaric.  And  it  may  be  added  further,  that  this  line  does  fulfill 
the  conditions  of  poetic  quantity,  as  completely  as  any  line  ever 
constructed  Avith  Greek  or  Roman  words.* 

To  a  bad  reader,  nearly  all  sentences  are  alike,  however 
improperly  constructed  for  vocal  expression.  While  he  who 
looks  abroad  for  excellence,  through  all  the  ways  of  the  voice, 

*  If  the  reader  would  know  how  certain  words  may  be  pronounced  as  a  foot 
or  prosodial  phrase,  either  of  two  or  of  three  syllables,  let  him  recur  to  our  prin- 
ciples of  syllabication,  formerly  described.  The  words  shoicers  is  one  syllable, 
when  the  e  is  omitted ;  the  dipthongal  tonic  ou,  vanishing  directly  into  the 
subtonic  r.  If  the  sound  of  e  is  retained,  that  element  requires  a  radical,  and 
the  word  becomes,  thereby,  of  two  syllables.  The  trisyllable  orient,  is  reduced 
to  a  dissyllable,  by  withholding  a  radical  from  the  sound  represented  by  «,  and 
thereby  dropping  that  sound  as  a  distinct  syllable.  Now  i,  in  the  trisyllable, 
is  expressed  by  the  proper  sound  of  ee-\,  and  this  element  passing  readily  into 
the  subtonic  y-e,  as  in  yent,  coalesces  with  the  succeeding  tonic  e;  or  rather 
taking  the  place  of  that  tonic,  joins  itself  to  the  subtonic  n,  to  form  the  short 
syllabic  impulse.  The  word  orient,  in  correct  pronunciation,  is  a  true  dactyl  in 
quantity.  I  have  set  it  as  an  iambus,  not  intending  to  defend  the  propriety  of 
the  construction,  but  to  form  thereby,  a  regular  iambic  line,  and  to  illustrate 
one  of  the  principles  of  English  pronunciation. 


174  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

must  often  find  the  tendencies  and  demands  of  his  utterance 
restricted,  by  the  unyielding  nature  of  an  immutable  phraseo- 
logy. A  limited  discernment,  and  the  common  uses  of  quantity 
often  suffice  to  set  forth  the  sense  of  an  author ;  but  the  picture 
of  passion,  "\^■ill  be  in  many  cases  imperfect,  if  made  on  the  short 
time  of  syllables.  A  reader  who  can  assume  the  spirit  of  the 
poet,  will  not  be  able  to  give  the  prompted  expression  to  part  of 
the  last  line  of  the  following  passage.  It  is  taken  from  Gabi;iers 
answer,  to  Satan's  apology  for  his  flight  from  Hell,  just  quoted, 
and  is  a  comment  on  the  title  of  faithful  leader,  vaunted  by 
Satan. 

0  name, 
0  sacred  name  of  faithfulness  profan'd ! 
Faithful  to  whom  ?  to  thy  rebellious  crew  ? 
Army  of  Fiends,  fit  body  to  fit  head. 

The  six  syllables  of  this  last  phrase  are  short,  and  all  the 
emphatic  ones  are  immutable.  They  contain  a  degree  of  admi- 
ration at  the  well  marked  fellowship,  between  a  ring-leader  and 
his  crew,  mingled  with  scorn  at  the  wicked  faithfulness  of  the 
rebellious  outcast :  and  these  sentiments,  we  shall  learn  here- 
after, cannot  be  eminently  shown  on  the  abrupt  shortness  of  the 
syllabic  time  here  employed.  With  an  accomplished  speaker, 
the  management  of  this  phrase  would  be  like  the  efi'orts  of  a 
musician  of  feeling  and  skill,  on  a  limited  instrument :  and  the 
difi"erent  efi"ect  of  his  voice,  on  the  above  short  syllables,  and  on 
indefinite  quantities  embracing  the  same  sentiments,  would  be 
like  the  effect  of  the  inexpressive  chattering  of  the  harp  or 
piano-forte,  compared  with  the  rich  resources  and  swayful  con- 
crete of  intonation,  in  the  violoncello.  The  harsh  and  unyielding 
character  of  the  short  syllables  in  the  above  example,  would  be 
striking  to  a  good  reader,  from  its  contrast  with  the  preceding 
phraseology :  in  which,  the  two  interjectives,  the  words  name, 
profaned,  zvJiom,  thy,  creiv,  army,  fiends,  and  perhaps  faith- 
ful, —  being  all  of  indefinite  time,  and  some  of  them  emphatic, 
—  afford  the  most  ample  means,  for  a  true  and  elegant  intona- 
tion of  any  sentiments  they  may  convey. 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  175 

The  abrupt  and  atonic  elements  produce,  in  discourse,  many 
instances  of  syllabic  construction  that  restrain,  or  altogether 
prevent  intonated  expression.  But  perhaps  the  greater  number 
of  sentences  admit  of  the  quantity,  required  by  their  sentiments. 
For  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  every  word  should  join 
in  the  expression.  One  or  two  well  accommodated  quantities, 
sometimes  sufficiently  convey  the  character  of  the  sentence. 
The  syllable  Par  in  the  following  line  has  a  natural  quantity, 
which,  without  impropriety,  may  be  doubled  or  more,  in  expres- 
sive utterance ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  bleed. 

Pf/T-don  me  thou  bleeding  piece  of  eavtli, 

That  I  am  meek  and  gentle  with  these  butchers  I 

The  circumstances  of  the  scene  in  Julius  Ccesar,  from  which 
this  is  taken,  inform  us  that  Mark  Antony's  sentiments,  ex- 
pressed in  the  first  line,  are  those  of  love,  grief  and  contrition  ; 
his  feeling  of  revenge  does  not  appear  until  the  second.  Those 
sentiments,  it  will  be  shown  hereafter,  call  particularly  for  an 
extension  of  syllabic  time  :  and  we  here  regard  the  words  partZow 
and  bleeding  as  emphatic,  since  they  respectively  picture  the 
special  object  of  the  suppliant,  and  the  disastrous  assassination, 
that  with  self  reproach,  he  had  delayed  to  punish.  Now  the 
accented  syllables  of  these  words  admit  the  prolonged  concrete ; 
and  the  employment  of  the  proper  expression  on  their  indefinite 
quantity  alone,  spreads  the  coloring  of  that  expression  over  the 
Avhole  line. 

In  the  preceding  illustrations,  the  reader  may  now  perceive 
some  ground  for  our  arrangement  of  syllables,  according  to  their 
time,  and  in  reference  to  the  subject  of  expression :  and  may 
thereupon,  admit  the  usefulness  of  its  nomenclature,  for  the 
purposes  of  criticism  and  description.  But  there  is  another 
view  to  be  taken  of  syllabic  quantity.  From  the  limited  re- 
sources and  the  necessarily  generic  character  of  language,  the 
same  word  may  in  different  sentences,  have  a  varied  meaning.  It 
is  still  more  common  to  find  the  same  word  imbued  with  a  dif- 
ferent sentiment,  in  its  changeable  combinations  with  other  words. 
Now  as  some  sentiments   are  only  properly  represented  by  a 


176  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

short  and  abrupt  utterance  ;  it  follo'W'S  that  a  word  or  syllable, 
■which  on  otiB  occasion  frustrates  the  designs  of  feeling,  by  resist- 
ing the  required  prolongation,  may  on  another,  fulfill  the  purpose 
of  expression  with  its  immutable  quantity.  It  was  shown  in  a 
former  example,  that  the  word  fight  was  incapable  of  the 
extension,  there  necessary  for  the  full  display  of  the  sentiment 
of  scorn.     When  Hamlet  in  the  violent  scene  with  Laertes  says. 

Why,  I  will  fight  with  him  upon  this  theme, 
Until  my  eyelids  will  no  longer  wag : 

the  quick  time  of  the  whole  sentence,  is  generically  inclusive  of 
the  short  time  of  its  constituent  syllables :  and  the  immutable 
quantity  of  the  word  fight,  by  admitting  of  abruptness  and 
force,  may  fully  denote  the  resolute  rage  of  the  prince. 

Interjections  are  the  only  part  of  speech,  employed  exclusively 
for  expression.  Those  common  to  all  languages,  consist  of 
tonics,  that  freely  admit  of  indefinite  prolongation.  Interjec- 
tions are  the  instincts  of  the  animal  voice ;  and  by  nature 
always  have  an  extendible  quantity,  required  for  the  expression 
of  feeling.  Other  parts  of  speech  are  sometimes  the  picture 
of  more  thoujrht,  and  sometimes  of  sentiment :  and  accommo- 
dated  to  this,  there  is  a  natural  diff'erence  in  the  time  of  sylla- 
bles. Had  words  been  invented  as  signs  of  feeling  only,  most 
of  them  would  have  been  made  with  a  prolonged  voice.  Since 
then  the  tonic  elements  may  be  uttered  either  as  long  or  as  short 
quantities,  and  since  the  abrupt  and  atonic,  in  certain  positions, 
inconveniently  produce  short  time  in  syllables,  it  might  be 
inferred,  that  a  language  consisting  entirely  of  tonic  sounds, 
manageable  both  for  long  and  short  quantities,  would  better 
fulfill  all  the  purposes  of  the  voice,  than  a  language  containing 
in  part,  elements  of  immutable  quantity.  But  some  sentiments 
are  Avell  represented  by  a  short  quantity,  and  a  sudden  issue  of 
voice :  and  the  abrupt  elements  are,  "in  certain  positions,  merely 
the  best  contrived  means  for  producing  that  suddenness  with  the 
greatest  variety  and  force.*     And  further,  the  atonies,  though 

*  Those  who  delight  in  searching  for  undiscoverable  things,  may  institute  an 
inquiry,  whether  the  abrupt  elements  derive  their  existence  in  speech,  from  the 
sudden  utterance  which  anger  and  other  violent  passions  instinctively  assumed, 
at  that  nonentity  of  date,  the  origin  of  language. 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  177 

not  in  their  own  nature  explosive,  yet  arrest  the  concrete  pro- 
gress of  vocality,  and  thus  allow  a  succeeding  tonic  readily  to 
take  on  the  abrupt  opening.  A  language  made  up  of  sounds, 
having  the  varied  character  of  our  tonic,  subtonic,  atonic,  and 
abrupt  elements,  is  well  accommodated  to  the  system  of  those 
expressive  signs,  ordained  throughout  all  vocal  creation.* 

The  employment  of  prolonged  time,  in  the  emphatic  places  of 
discourse,  with  a  view  to  expressive  intonation,  seems  never  to 
have  been  thought  of  by  ordinary  writers ;  and  has  been  so  far 
overlooked  in  the  schools,  that  it  has  never  received  formal 
notice  either  in  Rhetoric  or  Elocution.  Dramatists,  to  whose 
taste  and  duty  this  remark  is  especially  applicable,  frequently 
neglect  that  proper  adaptation  of  time,  which  would  afford  an 
Actor  the  means  of  adding  the  finishing  touches  of  his  voice,  to 
the  vivid  and  forcible  picture  of  poetic  composition. 

The  judicious  use  of  the  variations  of  time  is  the  very  life  of 
elocution,  and  the  right  hand  of  the  rythmus  of  poetry  and  prose. 

The  human  ear  has  cognizance  of  two  kinds  of  proportion  in 
the  successions  of  sound :  one  embracing  the  relationship  of  its 
forces,  the  other  of  its  durations. 

The  First  consists  in  the  perception  of  impressions  of  unequal 

*  This  remark  will  scarcely  be  acceptable,  to  those  who  have  always  thought, 
— the  greater  the  proportion  of  vowels  to  other  elements,  the  greater  the 
harmony,  as  it  is  cMJed,  of  a  language.  And  hence  the  sneer  of  Grecian  scho- 
larship at  olir  barbarian  cacophony  ;  if  I  may  with  a  repugnant  ear,  thus  lay  an 
example  of  classsical  harmony  on  an  English  page.  A  language  that  would 
give  to  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  oi,  and  ou,  an  over-share  of  speech,  would  be  very  mono- 
tonous, and  might  perhaps  remind  us  of  its  vowel  roots  among  the  animals. 
But  as  regards  sound,  it  would  be  far  from  our  idea  of  the  harmonious.  The 
term  harmony,  taken  from  other  arts,  has  not  a  very  descriptive  meaning,  when 
applied  to  language.  Architecture,  Music,  Painting,  and  the  Landscape,  re- 
quire, respectively,  a  unity  in  their  varied  distribution  of  sound,  color  and 
form,  and  a  variety  in  the  unitizing  power  of  contrasts,  to  make-up  the  engag- 
ing effects  of  their  harmony  :  while  each  has  its  peculiar  manner,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  of  Preparing,  and  Striking,  and  Resolving  its  discords.  What  the  lite- 
rary critic  calls  harmony  of  language,  is  the  audible  impression  of  Rythmus ; 
and  consists  in  the  varied  combinations  and  contrasts,  of  the  forms  of  Force, 
Quality,  and  Time,  with  the  intersections  of  pause;  shown  in  English  Compo- 
sition, by  a  due  apportionment  of  tonic,  subtonic,  and  atonic  elements,  to 
mutable,  immutable,   and  indefinite  syllables. 


178  THE   TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

force  alternately  successive.  Of  this  there  are  many  species, 
derived  from  the  order  of  succession,  or  the  number  of  the 
varied  impulses ;  as  exhibited  in  the  following  illustration : 
where  the  first  species  shows  a  heavy  impulse  followed  by  a 
lighter  one ;  the  second,  one  heavy  followed  by  two  lighter ; 
the  third  and  fourth  being  respectively  the  reversed  order  of 
the  other  two. 


%^  #•  #e  I  #«e  #oa  |   •#   •%  \  •••  ••^ 

The  Second  kind  of  proportion  consists  of  perceptions  of  the 
different  duration  of  two  or  more  sounds.  Of  these  there  are 
species,  arising  from  the  relation  of  long  and  short,  and  from 
the  order  of  succession :  as  in  the  following  illustration  :  where 
the  first  is  meant  to  represent  a  sound  of  given  duration  fol- 
lowed by  one  of  half  or  lesser  fraction  of  its  time  ;  the  second 
shows  a  given  time  followed  by  two  shorter ;  the  third  and 
fourth  being  respectively  the  reverse  in  order,  of  the  times  of 
the  first  and  second. 


1, 


The  reader  can  audibly  illustrate  these  schroics,  by  sounds 
of  different  force  and  duration. 

We  can  reach  no  further  in  the  investigation  of  this  subject, 
than  to  know,  the  measurement  of  these  proportions  is  an  agreea- 
ble exercise  of  the  ear  :  and  that  we  arc  more  pleased  with  varied 
percussions,  and  varied  durations  of  any  mechanical  sounds,  of 
these  or  other  symmetrical  arrangements,  than  with  one  unvaried 
succession  of  percussions  and  durations,  except  regular  pauses 
are  interposed  between  them ;  as  in  the  following  notation : 
where  the  space  of  a  pause  is  represented  between  a  series  of 
two,  and  of  three  similar  sounds. 

I^#    @#      ©®      I      999      •••      ••d 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  179 

Now  as  the  voice  has  the  power  of  this  momentary  percus- 
sion, and  as  syllables  have  different  degrees  of  duration,  both  of 
the  above  forms  of  succession  in  force  and  time,  may  be  applied 
to  speech.  The  perception  of  the  former  is  called  Accent,  and 
that  of  the  latter,  Quantity.  To  one  who  has  equally  exercised 
his  ear  in  these  two  kinds  of  measurement,  the  alternation  of 
quantity  is  by  far  the  most  agreeable.  For,  in  the  case  of 
accent,  no  momentary  sound  or  mere  '  ictus'  can  be  tunable ; 
whereas  a  prolonged  quantity  is  the  very  essential  of  tune.  If 
then  the  perception  of  equal  momentary  sounds,  with  pauses 
between  the  given  aggregates,  or  of  unequal  momentary  sounds, 
alternately  continued,  is  agreeable,  the  perception  of  a  similar 
order  of  differing  tuneful  quantities  must  be  more  so.  Since 
the  accentual  function  may  be  conjoined  with  quantity,  by  giving 
the  abrupt  ictus  to  the  beginning  of  a  prolonged  syllable :  while 
pauses  may  be  interposed  between  aggregates  that  make  up  the 
succession  of  quantity. 

The  above  view  regards  brute  sound  only.  When  quantity 
carries  the  concrete,  and  thus  becomes  susceptible  of  vocal 
expression,  its  claims  over  accent  are  incalculable. 

The  preceding  remarks  on  the  quantity  and  accent  of  language, 
refer  especially  to  the  use  of  the  voice  in  reading  verse :  since 
a  principal  cause  of  the  difference  between  a  good  and  a  bad 
reader  therein,  lies  in  their  ability  to  command  the  accent  and 
quantity  of  syllables. 

It  may  be  supposed,  I  allude  to  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages,  when  speaking  of  the  quantity  of  verse.  No,  it  is 
to  the  English  language,  and  to  the  partial,  though  unsought 
use  of  quantity,  at  present  prevailing  in  its  measure:  and  I 
wish  further  to  intimate  an  anticipation  of  the  future  construction 
of  its  versification,  on  the  sole  basis  of  quantity  ;  if  the  scho- 
lastic formalists  of  literature  can  be  made  to  believe, —  the 
subject  of  ancient  prosody  has,  for  ages  past,  been  exhausted ; 
that  the  labors  of  wrangling  compilation,  arc  inferior  to  the 
works  of  inventive  improvement,  and  that  the  investigation  of 
their  own  respective  languages,  may  assure  to  them  the  first 
births  of  genius,  and  to  their  productions,  if  ambitious  of  such 
things,  the  consequent  undivided  heritage  of  fame. 


180  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

About  the  time  we  are  taught  to  measure  the  syllables  of 
Virgil,  bv  the  relations  of  long  and  short,  we  are  told,  the 
genius  of  our  own  tongue  does  not  admit  of  the  rythmus  of 
quantity ;  and  that  the  prosody  of  the  English  as  well  as  of 
other  modern  languages,  is  restricted  to  the  use  of  the  alter- 
nately strong  and  weak  percussive  accent.  For  the  sake  of 
the  general  principle  in  some  important  matters,  we  do  well 
perhaps,  in  the  present  make-shift  state  of  the  human  mind,  to 
rely  implicitly,  for  a  time,  on  the  authority  of  our  teachers  ; 
but  many  find  reason  to  regret  the  necessity  of  this  confidence 
in  particular  instances.  From  the  finely  governed  and  varied 
quantities  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  I  first  learned,  by  beautiful  and  im- 
pressive demonstration,  that  the  English  language  posseses 
similar,  if  not  equal  resources,  with  the  Greek  and  the  Latin, 
in  this  department  of  the  luxury  of  speech :  and  I  thus  found 
myself  indebted  to  the  Stage,  for  the  opening  of  a  source  of 
poetical  and  oratorical  pleasure,  which  the  more  virtuous  pre- 
tences, and  the  hack  instruction  of  a  College,  either  knew  not 
or  disregarded.  While  listening  to  the  intonations  of  this  surpass- 
ing Actress,  I  first  felt  a  want  of  that  elementary  knowledge  which 
would  have  enabled  me  to  trace  the  ways  of  all  her  excellence. 
I  could  not  however,  avoid  learning  from  her  instinctive  example, 
what  the  appointed  elders  over  my  education  should  have  taught 
me ;  that  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  expressive  into- 
nation, consists  in  the  extended  time  of  syllabic  utterance.* 

I  must  not  be  understood  here,  as  asserting,  the  quantity 
of  English  syllables  has  not  been  recognized  by  prosodians ;  or 

*  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  hear  this  admirable  Actress,  b^h  in  Edinburgh 
and  London,  while  pursuing  my  medical  studies,  from  eighteen  hundred  and 
nine,  till  eighteen  hundred  and  eleven.  On  the  first  publication  of  this  work, 
in  eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-seven,  it  came  into  my  mind,  though  unwar- 
ranted perhaps,  by  my  admiration  both  here,  and  subsequently  expressed, 
to  send  her  a  Copy  :  not  however,  without  sufficient  warning,  from  some  floating 
idea,  that  the  work  itself  would  be  regarded,  by  that  peculiar  Actor-ism  of 
Actors,  as  an  unwelcome,  if  not  a  presumptuous  offering  on  the  Theatric  Altar  of 
Anti-docility  and  Self-sufficient  Genius,  I  think  it  was  then,  and  now  after 
seven  and  twenty  years,  when  I  add  this  note,  I  more  than  think  it  is  still  so 
regarded. 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  181 

that  its  beauty  has  not  been  perceived  by  a  good  ear,  wherever 
it  has  been  well  used  by  design,  or  accidentally,  in  English 
versification,  and  in  the  well  adjusted  syllabic  successions  of 
prose.  I  mean  to  convey  a  regret  that  its  powers  have  been 
undervalued ;  that  it  has  been  thereby  excluded  from  its  place 
in  elementary  rhetorical  instruction ;  and  that  the  ear  has  thus 
been  deprived  of  one  of  its  highest  prerogatives  of  perception, 
in  poetry  and  speech. 

We  may  very  reasonably  ask  whether  a  classical  scholar  is 
gravely  in  earnest,  or  only  vain  of  a  college  livery,  in  declaring 
his  enjoyment  of  Greek  and  Latin  rythmus,  while  he  is  ignorant 
of  similar  resources  of  neglected  quantity,  in  his  own  language. 
The  Greeks  and  the  Latins  have  left  us  their  grammar,  their 
written  words,  syllables,  and  elements ;  but  our  uncertainty  of 
the  true  voice  of  these  elements  in  their  several  combinations, 
has  given  rise,  among  modern  nations,  to  a  difference  in  the 
pronunciation  of  them.  Assuming  the  English  manner,  the 
subject  of  Greek  and  Latin  quantity  may  be  resolved  into  these 
simple  principles.  Long  syllables,  or  the  temporal  effects  of  long 
syllables,  are  made  in  two  ways  :  First,  by  the  absolute  duration  of 
syllables,  constituted  like  those  we  called  indefinite  :  Second,  by 
the  short  time  of  those  we  called  immutable  and  mutable,  followed 
by  a  pause ;  the  time  of  pronunciation  added  to  the  time  of  the 
pause,  being  equal  to  along  syllable.  Short  syllables  are  made 
by  the  short-timed  pronunciation  of  indefinite  syllables,  or  by 
immutable  ones.  Now  there  is  nothing  in  this  account  of 
ancient  quantity,  not  true  of  the  English  language. 

And  further,  not  only  are  these  general  principles  of  syllabic 
construction  the  same  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  English,  but  the 
very  syllables  themselves  are  common  to  these  three  languages ; 
nay,  we  may  say,  to  all  languages.  For  we  must  bear  in  mind, 
there  is  in  all  languages,  about  the  same  number,  both  of 
vowels  and  consonants ;  and  that  universally,  no  syllable  ever 
includes  more  than  one  vowel.  If  the  reader  will  run  over 
every  line  of  Homer,  and  Horace,  he  will  find  few  if  any  sylla- 
bles that  do  not  form  the  Avhole,  or  part,  of  some  word  in  his 
own  tongue ;  both  as   regards   the  elemental  sounds,  and  the 


182  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

most  exact  coincidence  of  quantity.  But  it  is  on  the  nature  of 
syllables  alone,  that  the  doctrine  of  quantity  is  founded,  in  every 
language.  When  we  therefore  deny,  that  the  genius  of  the  English 
tongue  admits  of  the  temporal  measure,  we  must  come  to  the 
absurd  conclusion,  that  identical  sounds  have  in  Greek  type,  the 
most  finished  fitness  for  quantity,  and  in  English  have  none 
at  all.* 

These  remarks  refer  principally  to  the  time  of  syllables  sepa- 
rately considered.  There  may  be  some  differences  in  the  several 
words  of  these  languages,  that  may  render  it  easier  to  construct 
a  rythmus  of  quantity  in  one  than  in  another ;  but  we  speak 
now  of  the  admission  of  the  system  of  quantity  into  English,  and 
not  of  the  comparative  ease  of  its  execution  when  adopted. 
There  may  be  some  facilities  in  the  Greek  for  certain  kinds  of  mea- 
sure, arising  out  of  the  greater  length  of  the  generality  of  words 
in  this  language.  The  Greek  may  possess  an  advantage  over 
the  English  in  some  of  the  purposes  of  vocal  expression  and 
poetic  quantity,  by  having  a  greater  number  of  indefinite  sylla- 
bles, and  by  making  less  use  of  the  abrupt  elements,  in  positions 
that  produce  an  immutable  time.       Greek  syllables   have,  in 


*  That  this  may  not  be  regarded  as  an  exaggerated  conclusion,  I  add,  from 
among  a  thousand  authorities  that  might  be  quoted  for  the  same  purpose,  the  fol- 
lowing substantial  sujtport  to  it.  In  the  chapter  on  versification,  in  Baron 
Bielfeld's  'Elements  of  Universal  Erudition,'  after  many  remarks  on  the  subject 
of  ancient  quantity  and  modern  accent,  which  in  nowise  qualify  the  following 
extraordinary  assertion,  the  author  says,  '  Properly  speaking,  there  are  not,  there- 
fore, in  modern  languages,  any  sensible  distinctions  of  long  and  short  syllables,  but 
many  that  are  to  be  lightly  passed  over,  and  others  on  which  a  strong  accent, 
or  inflection  of  the  voice,  is  to  be  placed.'  This  was  written  towards  the  close 
of  the  last  century,  by  the  '  Preceptor  to  a  European  Prince,  and  the  chancellor 
of  all  the  universities  in  the  Prussian  dominions.'  Even  before  his  time,  some 
prosodians  were  not  without  the  sense  of  hearing  ;  and  though,  since  the  epoch 
of  his  deep  deafness,  the  existence  of  long  and  short  syllables  in  modern  lan- 
guages, has  been  generally  admitted,  yet  it  is  still  held  to  be  impossible  to  make 
agreeable  measure  out  of  their  relations. 

In  candor,  it  should  be  stated,  the  Baron  was  a  compiler;  but  such 
writers  generally  represent  current  opinions,  and  they  always  know  more  of 
indexes,  popular  books,  and  other  men"s  notions,  than  is  either  known  or 
coveted  by  those  who  'observe,  and  read,  and  think,  for  themselves.' 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  183 

general,  fewer  letters  than  English ;  and  they  more  frequently 
end  with  a  tonic  element. 

The  employment  of  quantity,  in  the  composition  of  English 
prose  writers,  produces  portions  of  the  regular  measure  of  Greek 
and  Latin  lines.  If  these  occasional  passages  of  temporal 
rythmus  are  well  accommodated  to  the  genius  of  the  English 
language,  it  does  not  appear  why  the  studied  contrivance  of  a 
poet  might  not  use  those  existing  quantities,  in  the  continued 
course  of  verse.  The  following  sentence  has  not  the  accentual 
form  of  any  of  our  established  metres,  and  is  therefore,  in  its  ryth- 
mus, purely  English  prose  :  Rome,  in  her  downfall,  blazoned  the 
fame  of  barbarian  conquests.  This  sentence  derives  its  impres- 
siveness,  from  the  position  of  its  long  and  short  quantities. 
Now  the  position  is  exactly  that  of  a  Latin  and  of  a  Greek 
hexameter  line,  as  may  be  seen  by  comparison. 

Dactyl  Spondee         Dactyl  Dactyl  Dactyl     Spondee. 

Ev  SiTTC  I  at         fw(J  1  tr^^i  a,  |  ^r^goti  \  7rt.xgo^    o  |  laroj. 

Si  nihil  |  ex      tant  |  a  siipe  ]  ris     pUcet  |  urbe     re  |  Unqui. 

Rome  in  her  |  downfall   |  blazon'd  the  |  fame  of  bar  |  barian     |  conquests. 

If  this  last  sentence  should  be  read  with  its  proper  pauses, 
and  with  deliberate  pronunciation,  it  will  correspond  in  measure 
with  the  long  and  short  times  of  the  superscribed  Latin  and  the 
Greek.  Let  us  not,  however,  think  it  strange,  for  anticipation 
takes  oflF  the  edge  of  surprise,  if  a  classic  scholar  should  deny 
the  identity  of  its  temporal  impression,  with  that  of  the  collated 
lines.  We  are  so  little  accustomed  to  regard  English  syllables 
in  reference  to  their  quantity,  that  it  is  difficult,  at  first,  to  make 
it  even  a  subject  of  perception.  For  he  who,  according  to 
vulgar  persuasion,  believes,  there  is  an  openness  of  the  senses 
to  first  physical  impressions,  greater  than  of  the  mind  to  new 
'subjects  of  thought,  plainly  indicates  that  he  has  overlooked  the 
ways  and  powers  of  both  the  senses  and  the  mind ;  since  the 
senses  have  equally  their  ignorance,  obstinacy,  and  prejudice ; 
they  equally  perceive  what  is  familiar,  and  for  a  long  time  can 
perceive  no  more.     A  cultivated  and  searching  eye  and  ear  arc 


184  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

as  rarely  found,  as  a  "well  disciplined  and  self-dependent  mind ; 
and  a  wise  master,  in  human  policy  and  morals,  would  not  have 
more  difficulty,  Avhere  interest  is  not  inimical,  in  effecting  his 
designs  of  melioration,  than  an  original  observer  in  physical 
science  would  experience  from  the  mass, —  I  was  about  to  say  of 
the  Philosophical  world, —  upon  soliciting  an  immediate  assent 
to  the  reality  of  a  manifest  development  of  nature,  or  of  some 
useful  invention  of  art.  •  It  is  a  passive  and  an  easy  thing 
to  look  and  to  listen ;  but,  with  a  spirit  of  intelligent  inquiry, 
it  is  a  labor  of  wisdom  to  see  and  to  hear. 

In  speaking  of  the  indefinite  syllables  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, it  was  saidj — their  time  might  be  varied  without  deforming 
pronunciation ;  and  it  was  formerly  shown,  that  the  abrupt  ele- 
ments, which  generally  terminate  immutable  syllables,  have 
necessarily,  after  the  occlusion,  a  pause  that  allows  an  immutable 
syllable,  with  the  addition  of  the  time  of  that  pause,  to  hold  the 
place,  and  fulfill  the  function  of  a  long  one.  With  these  mate- 
rials for  the  construction  of  a  temporal  rythmus  in  English 
versification,  nothing  but  deafness  or  prejudice,  prevents  our 
perceiving  that  its  institution  has  been  strongly  prompted  by 
nature,  and  is  already  half  established  in  our  poetry.  We  allow 
a  reader  full  liberty  over  the  quantity  of  syllables,  for  the  sake 
of  expression  in  speech ;  and  song  employs  the  widest  ranges 
of  time  on  tonic  sounds ;  why  should  we  refuse  to  the  measure 
of  verse,  a  less  striking  departure  from  the  rules  of  common 
pronunciation. 

Mr.  Sheridan,  who*  does  not  overlook  the  existence  of  quan- 
tity in  the  English  language,  and  its  use  in  the  expression  of 
speech,  but  who,  nevertheless,  maintains  that  the  genius  of  our 
tongue  is  exclusively  disposed  to  the  accentual  measure,  seems 
to  ground  his  opinion,  on  the  special  rules  of  Greek  and  Latin 
prosody,  not  being  applicable  to  the  phenomena  of  varying 
time  in  English  pronunciation.  He  might  as  fairly  have  con- 
cluded, that  the  good  English  style  of  his  own  lectures  could 
not  be  as  perspicuous  as  a  Latin  construction,  because  his  natu- 
ral arrangement,  is  different  from  the  appropriate  inversions  of 
the  latter  toncrue. 


5 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  X85 

The  brief  inquiry  on  this  subject  is  ;  Has  the  English  lan- 
guage long  and  short  syllables ;  and  can  these  varying  quanti- 
ties be  so  arranged  as  to  produce  an  agreeable  rythmus  ?  The 
answer  is  as  brief.  We  have,  equally  with  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  the  variation  of  long  and  short,  in  syllables ;  and  it 
requires  some  other  argument  against  the  design  of  employing 
it  in  metre,  than  that  derived  from  its  having  never  yet  been 
done.  I  would  not  choose  to  contend  with  him  who  doubts  that 
quantity  necessarily  belongs  to  every  spoken  language.  The 
ancients  not  only  recognized  it  in  theirs,  but  by  attention  to 
its  nature,  availed  themselves  of  its  uses  in  the  creations  of 
literary  taste.  If  Greek  and  Roman  grammarians,  in  recording 
their  special  rules  for  the  quantity  of  particular  words,  had 
furnished  us  with  a  little  of  that  philosophy  of  elemental  and 
syllabic  sounds,  which  authorized,  or  instintively  produced  the 
rules  of  their  prosody,  the  moderns  would,  in  all  probability, 
have  seen  its  application  to  their  own  languages. 

If  it  is  true, —  the  Greeks  did  not  derive  the  Knowledge  and 
use  of  Quantity  from  Egypt  and  the  East,  there  is  some  ground 
for  the  opinion,  though  this  part  of  history  is  not  altogether 
clear,  that  the  restricted  melodial  nature  of  their  music;  its 
relation  to  song ;  the  care  therein  taken  to  adjust  the  temporal 
correspondence  of  syllables  to  notes  ;  together  with  its  forming 
part  of  the  liberal  education  of  their  orators,  poets,  and  philo- 
sophers,—  may  have  led  to  the  close  investigation  of  quantity, 
and  to  its  application  by  the  later  Greeks  to  their  rythmic 
composition.  For  we  are  not  justified  in  assuming  its  early 
use  at  the  date  assigned  to  the  Iliad ;  since  the  fabulous  accounts 
of  that  Poem  leave  its  original  condition,  altogether  unknown. 
We  cannot  therefore  but  believe  in  its  countless  alterations : 
and  that  its  first  mingled  measure  of  quantity  and  accent,  was 
subsequently  changed  to  its  present  prosodial  form.  The  modern 
extension  of  the  science  of  music  to  the  principles  and  resources 
of  the  ingenious  system  of  harmony,  has  rendered  it  independent 
of  the  support  of  words ;  and  the  nice  measurement  of  their 
time  has  been  neglected,  since  the  separation  of  the  formerly 
united  duties  of  the  composer  and  the  poet. 
13 


186  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

I  here  offer  the  conjecture,  but  leaA'e  others  to  determine 
its  truth, —  that  the  establishment  of  Greek  rythmus  on  the 
relations  of  quantity,  did  contribute,  with  other  causes,  to  the 
euphony  of  that  language.  We  know  what  alteration  rhyme, 
and  the  accentual  measure  have  made  in  the  pronunciation  of 
English ;  and  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  one  means  for 
enlarging  the  resources  of  its  rythmus,  would  be,  even  in  its 
present  state  of  maturity,  to  found  its  versification  on  quantity. 
The  occasional  wants  of  poets  would  prompt  them  to  change 
many  of  our  immutable  syllables  to  indefinites ;  would  suggest 
the  elision  of  atonic  or  abrupt  elements,  from  the  end  of 
syllables ;  and  thus,  by  those  large  labors  which  the  mere  critic 
seems  not  to  contemplate,  is  rarely  disposed  to  encourage,  and 
certainly  never  has  accomplished,  our  language  might  be  invited 
towards  that  condition  of  syllabication  which  constitutes,  in 
part,  the  prosodial  superiority  of  the  Greek.  We  know  that 
the  diaeresis  and  other  licenses  of  Greek  versification,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  dialects,  which  must  have  been  widely  diffused 
by  their  literature,  were  constantly  used  for  facilities  in  the 
arrangement  of  poetic  quantity ;  and  we  might  inquire  whether 
the  addition  to  its  alphabet  of  the  Heta  and  Omega,  was  not 
part  of  the  contribution,  suggested  and  afforded  by  the  circum- 
stances of  the  temporal  measure. 

Those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  poetical  composition,  in  the 
common  accentual  method,  know  how  readily  words  of  suitable 
accents  are  associated  with  the  demands  of  versification.  Nay, 
the  fluency  of  the  ear,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  is  in  this  matter  so 
unfailing,  that  if  the  sense  of  words  be  disregarded,  there  will 
be  no  hesitation  in  sorting  such  unmeaning  discourse  into  any 
assumed  accentual  measure.  I  mean,  that  a  person  with  a  quick 
poetical  ear  and  a  free  command  of  language,  will  find  no 
difficulty  in  carrying  on,  for  any  duration,  an  extempore  ryth- 
mus of  mere  unrelated  words  or  phrases.  But  he  who  is  not  in 
the  practice  of  metrical  composition,  even  if  aware  of  the 
required  succession  of  accents,  would  show  as  much  delay  in 
gathering  words  to  fulfill  his  accentual  purposes,  as  the  former 
would,  under  the  present  state  of   the  English  ear,  in  aptly 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  I37 

furnishing  syllables  for  a  temporcal  rythmus.  Habit  must  have 
given  to  the  Extemporizing  poets  of  Greece,  if  there  ever  were 
such  persons  worth  hearing,  the  same  elective  affinity  of  ear,  for 
the  appropriate  quantity  of  their  verses,  as  the  Improvisatori  of 
later  Italy  had  for  their  required  accents.  At  least  two-thirds 
of  the  accented  syllables  of  English  words  are  indefinite  in  their 
time,  and  may,  at  pleasure,  be  made  either  long  or  short.  This 
resource  for  measure  may  be  employed.  Until,  therefore,  we 
have  a  larger  experience  in  the  use  of  quantity,  for  modern 
versification,  and  until  the  English  ear  knows  more  of  the 
appreciable  time  of  syllables  than  it  does  at  present,  we  may  be 
Justified  in  considering  the  denial  of  the  susceptibility  of  a 
temporal  rythmus  to  modern  languages,  as  a  mere  assumption. 

It  is  true,  the  number  of  monosyllables  and  dissyllables  in 
our  language,  exceeds  that  of  the  Greek ;  and  this  may  possibly 
render  the  former  less  fit  than  the  latter,  for  the  construction  of 
certain  systems  of  measure.  On  this  ground  it  has  been 
asserted  that  English  words  could  not  be  arranged  in  an  agree- 
able dactylic  succession.  This  may  be  the  case,  but  we  have  too 
little  sleight  in  the  management  of  quantity,  to  justify  a  positive 
opinion  on  this  point ;  and  the  trials  already  made,  are  not 
quite  decisive.  Habit  is  a  forestalled  and  obstinate  judge  over 
existing  institutions,  and  often  pronounces  unwisely  upon  their 
better  substitutes.  It  is  certain  that  an  anapaestic  measure, 
founded  on  a  mixture  of  accent  and  quantity,  and  nearly  identi- 
cal in  effect  with  the  ancient  full  dactylic  line,  is  well  suited  to 
the  syllabic  and  verbal  condition  of  our  language ;  and  that  a 
very  agreeable  rythmus  is  produced  by  it.*      Admitting  the 

*  Let  us  subjoin  a  word  here,  for  our  delusions  and  prejudices.  The  dactylic 
foot,  and  the  anapaestic,  fall  with  a  similar  effect  upon  the  ear.  The  ancients 
used  the  former  for  themes  of  the  highest  dignity ;  and  school  boys  are  taught 
that  it  richly  and  gravely  fulfills  its  purpose.  We  use  the  anapaestic  foot  for 
doggerel  and  burlesque,  and  believe  too,  there  is  something  in  its  light  skip 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  familiar  gayety  of  its  modern  poetic  use.  Let  a  deaf 
■worshipper  of  antiquity  and  an  English  prosodist,  settle  this  matter  between 
them :  for,  to  serve  a  purpose,  even  the  opposite  ends  of  contradiction  can  be 
made  to  meet.  But  on  this,  as  on  some  other  articles  of  the  classical  creed 
they  may  be  reduced  to  say,  in  the  sole  words  by  which  the  Yezedi  of  Pe  sia 
who  worship  the  devil,  briefly  explained  their  faith,  and  pertinaciously  defended 
it  against  a  Christian  missionary  ;  '  Thus  it  is.' 


Igg  THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE. 

above  objection,  it  will  not  overrnle  the  design  to  establish 
the  forms  of  Iambic  and  Trochaic  measure,  now  in  use,  on  the 
basis  of  quantity  alone. 

Although  English  versification  is  avowedly  founded  on  the  accen- 
tual rythmus,  entire  lines  are  occasionally  found,  so  satisfactorily 
fulfilling  all  the  conditions  of  the  temporal  measure,  that  they 
might  be  judged  by  the  revived  poetical  ear  of  a  Greek.  But 
such  lines  are  always  preceded  and  followed  by  others,  founded 
on  the  mingled  relations  of  both  quantity  and  accent.  One  who 
is  skilled  in  the  art  of  measuring  the  time  of  syllables,  will,  over 
this  compounded  rythmus,  be  shocked  by  the  irregular  and 
unexpected  variation  of  its  dissimilar  impressions.  An  ear  of 
delicate  prosodial  organization,  which  y£t  makes  no  inquiry  into 
the  nature  of  its  perceptions,  often  experiences  this  rythmic 
^'iolence  from  English  verse,  but  is  ignorant  of  its  cause.  The 
poet,  by  intellect,  who  has  at  the  same  time  a  ready  discrimina- 
tion of  quantity,  and  a  copious  language  at  command,  instinctively 
avoids,  in  composition,  much  of  the  evil  of  these  conflicting 
systems.  And  one  of  the  merits  of  a  good  reader  of  verse, 
consists  in  changing  our  metrical  accents  into  conspicuous 
quantities,  by  protracting  the  voice  on  all  those  syllables,  that 
have  a  stress  in  the  measure,  and  will  bear  prolongation. 

From  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  comparative  nature  of 
quantity  and  accent,  and  from  the  slow  progress  of  modern 
nations  in  distinguishing  the  relations  of  the  former,  it  would 
seem,  of  these  two  metrical  impressions,  accent  is  more  easily 
recognized.  Nor  is  it  unwarrantable  to  infer,  from  the  greater 
facility  in  arranging  an  accentual  measm-e,  that  the  first  rythmic 
essays  of  all  nations  were  made  in  this  form  of  versification ; 
and  that  the  Greeks  themselves  passed  through  this  rattling 
amusement  of  poetical  infancy.  There  is  no  fact  opposed  to 
this  inference;  and  I  could  as  soon  be  persuaded, —  the  first 
instrumental  music  of  Otaheite,  was  not  the  clattering  of  shells, 
as  that  the  earliest  songs  of  Greece  were  measured  by  the  nice 
relationships  of  time.  Our  language,  though  neither  young  nor 
indigent,  is  but  in  its  unformed  childhood  on  this  point :  and 
many  of  those  who  have  worked  with  good  wishes,  but  ineffectual 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  VOICE.  189 

means,  towards  its  improvement ;  and  wbo,  by  taste  and  author- 
ity, have  been  qualified  to  listen  to  living  voices,  with  progressively 
meliorating  influence  upon  them,  have  only  wandered  off  with 
an  unavailing  ear,  among  the  silent  graves  of  language  in  the 
remote  realms  of  antiquity.  We  all  feel  —  who  have  the  heart 
to  feel — an  august  delight  over  the  yet  enduring  works  of 
the  distant  dead :  There  is  scarcely  a  page  of  the  poetic  ryth- 
mus  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  or  a  remaining  trace  of 
their  plummet  and  chisel,  that  might  not  make  me  forget, 
through  intense  contemplation,  the  mere  seclusion  of  a  prison. 
But  I  could  as  soon  admit,  that  the  modern  zeal  in  freighting  our 
homeward  ships  with  the  fragments  of  their  temples ;  and  the 
covetousness  of  nations,  for  the  very  purloined  possession  of 
their  statuary,  ought  to  preclude  the  future  use  of  the  marble  of 
our  mountains,  for  the  accomplishment  of  equal  or  transcending 
works  of  art,  as  that  a  just  admiration  of  classic  measure  should 
prevent  the  endeavor  to  transfer  to  our  own  language,  the 
admissible  principles  of  Greek  and  Roman  poetry. 

I  have  offered  the  last  few  pages  of  this  section,  as  no  more 
than  digressive  and  desultory  remarks  on  a  subject,  intimately 
connected  with  the  time  of  the  voice,  and  with  the  cultivation  of 
an  important  but  neglected  Mode  of  speech. 

The  English  language  has  an  unbounded  prospect  before  it. 
The  unequalled  millions  of  a  great  continent,  to  whatever  Forms 
of  Government  they  may  hereafter  decline,  must  still  hold  commu- 
nity in  the  wide  and  wonderful  diffusion  of  an  identical  speech  : 
and  we  should  not  so  far  undervalue  the  emulative  efforts  of  its 
future  Scholars,  as  to  suppose  they  will  all  merely  vaunt  in  retro- 
spective vanity,  over  what  has  been  done,  and  not  extend  their  views 
to  other  and  deeper  resources  of  their  art.  But,  in  thus  looking 
forward  to  the  establishment  of  English  versification,  on  the  basis 
of  quantity,  we  must  allow  a  limitation  of  the  poet's  abundance, 
for  the  substituted  excellence  of  his  few  but  finished  lines.  Our 
measure  is  now  drawn  from  the  two  different  sources  of  accent 
and  quantity.  To  construct  a  rythmus  by  quantity  alone,  will 
require  more  rejections,  and  a  wider  search  in  composition  ;  more 
copiousness  in  the  command  of  words;  greater  readiness  and 


190  THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES. 

accuracy  of  ear,  in  measuring  the  relationships  of  time ;  and 
longer,  much  longer  labor  for  a  shorter  work.  I  am  here  speak- 
ing of  the  great  results  of  the  pen.  Of  these,  as  of  all  enduring 
human  productions,  labor,  associated  -with  time,  must  be  the 
assistant  means ;  and  must  deservedly  divide  the  merit  of  the 
achievement,  ■with  the  wisdom  that  invoked  their  aid.  Let  him 
who  could  patiently  devote  a  life,  to  laying-up  store  of  '  goodly 
thoughts'  for  Paradise  Lost,  unravel  the  idler's  fable  about  that 
'  inspiration,'  of  the  so-called  immortal  works  of  man.  Let 
them,  who  to  the  soul  of  genius  have  joined  the  strong  body  of 
laborious  care,  say,  wherein  consists  the  true  life  and  the  embalm- 
ing of  fame :  let  them  touch  the  sleeve  of  early  and  voluminous 
authoi'ship,  and  whisper  one  of  the  useful  secrets,  for  accom- 
plishing more  that  may  wisely  instruct  and  endure,  and  less 
that  with  ambitious  haste,  may  merely  teach  itself  to  fail, —  and 
perish. 


SECTION  xn. 

Of  the  Intonation  at  Pauses. 

I'uE  term  Pause,  in  elocution,  is  applied  to  an  occasional 
silence  in  discourse,  greater  than  the  momentary  rest  between 
syllables. 

Pauses  are  used  for  the  more  conspicuous  display  of  sense  and 
sentiment,  by  separating  certain  words  or  aggregates  of  words 
from  each  other.   . 

The  philosophy  of  grammar,  consistently  with  those  two  great 
Categories,  Matter  and  Motion,  has  reduced  all  the  words  of  uni- 
versal language  to  two  corresponding  classes ;  the  Substantive, 
denoting  Things  that  exist ;  and  the  Verb,  denoting  the  various 
conditions  of  their  Actions :  all  the  other  Parts  of  Speech  being 


THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES.  191 

only  specifications  of  the  attributes  of  these  things ;  and  the 
predication  of  their  actions,  with  regard  to  time,  place,  degree, 
manner,  and  all  their  possible  relationships.  Now  pauses  sepa- 
rate by  sections,  the  aggregates  of  words  which  severally  describe 
these  existences  and  agencies,  with  their  relationships :  and 
while  the  continuity  of  utterance,  within  these  inclusive  sections 
gives  unity  to  the  impression  on  the  ear,  the  mind  remains 
undistracted,  through  its  temporary  restriction  to  a  single  sub- 
ject of  attention.  The  division  of  discourse,  by  means  of  this 
occasional  rest,  prevents  the  feebleness  or  confusion  of  impres- 
sion, resulting  from  an  unbroken  movement  of  speech,  no  less 
remarkably  than  the  skilful  disposition  of  color,  and  light,  and 
space,  significantly  distinguish  the  pictured  objects  and  figures 
of  the  canvas,  from  the  unmeaning  positions  and  actions  of  a 
chaos  and  a  crowd. 

The  sections  of  discourse,  thus  separated  by  pauses,  vary 
in  extent  from  a  single  word,  to  a  full  member  of  a  sentence. 
There  are  indeed,  some  purposes  of  expression  which  require  a 
slight  pause  even  between  syllables.  It  was  shown  that  for  the 
full  opening  of  the  radical,  it  must  be  preceded  by  an  occlusion 
of  the  voice.  Now  the  accented  syllable  of  the  word  a,t-tack 
being  an  immutable  quantity,  can  receive  a  marked  emphatic 
distinction,  only  by  an  abrupt  explosion  of  the  radical,  after  a 
momentary  pause. 

The  times  of  the  several  pauses  of  discourse  vary  in  duration, 
from  the  slight  inter-syllabic  rest,  to  the  full  separation  of  suc- 
cessive paragraphs :  the  degrees  being  accommodated  to  the 
requisitions  of  the  greater  or  less  connection  of  the  sense,  and 
to  the  peculiar  demands  of  sentiment. 

All  the  parts  of  a  connected  discourse,  should  both  in  subject 
and  in  structure  bear  some  relation  to  each  other.  But  these  rela- 
tions being  severally  nearer  and  more  remote,  grammatical  Points 
were  invented  to  mark  their  varying  degrees.  The  common 
points,  however,  very  indefinitely  efiect  their  purposes,  in  the  art 
of  reading.  They  are  described  in  books  of  elementary  instruc- 
tion, principally  with  reference  to  the  time  of  pausing ;  and  are 
addressed  to  the  eye,  as  indications  of  grammatical  structure. 


192  THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES. 

It  is  true,  the  symbols  of  interrogation,  and  exclamation  are 
said  to  denote  peculiarity  of  'tone.'  But  as  there  is,  in  these 
cases,  no  designation  of  the  nature  or  degrees  of  the  vocal 
movements,  the  extreme  generality  of  the  statement  affords 
neither  preceptive  nor  practical  guide  to  the  ear.  The  full 
efficacy  of  Points  should  consist  in  directing  the  appropriate 
intonation  at  pauses,  no  less  than  in  marking  their  durations : 
and  a  just  definition  of  the  term  Punctuation  would  perhaps,  be 
as  properly  founded  on  variations  and  distinctions,  produced  by 
the  phi'ases  of  melody,  as  on  a  difference  in  the  time  of  rest. 
Before  Mr.  Walker,  no  writer,  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  had 
formally  taught  the  necessity  of  regarding  the  inflections  of  the 
voice,  in  the  history  of  pauses. 

It  is  of  much  importance  in  speech,  with  regard  to  mere 
variety  of  sound,  as  well  as  to  sense  and  expression,  to  apply 
the  proper  intonation  at  pauses.  The  phrases  of  melody  have 
here  a  positive  meaning,  and  often  mark  a  continuation  or  a 
completion  of  the  sense,  when  the  style  and  the  temporal  rest 
alone,  would  not  to  an  auditor,  be  decisive  of  its  natm-e.  But 
the  pm-poses  of  pausing  being  various,  an  appropriate  intonation 
must,  by  its  changes,  prevent  the  monotony,  so  common  with 
most  readers,  at  the  grammatical  divisions  of  discourse. 

The  effect  of  pause,  in  relation  to  a  separation  of  time,  will 
be  illustrated  in  the  next  section,  on  Grouping :  and  I  now 
(lescribe  the  successions  of  pitch,  at  the  different  places  of  rest. 

The  triad  of  the  cadence  denotes  a  completion  of  the  pre- 
<;eding  sense,  and  is  therefore  inadmissible,  except  at  a  proper 
grammatical  period.  But  it  docs  not  therefore  follow, —  it 
must  be  always  applied  at  the  close  of  a  preceding  sense ;  for  in 
those  forms  of  composition  called  loose  sentences,  and  inverted 
periods,  there  are  members  Avith  this  complete  and  insulated 
meaning,  to  which,  however,  an  additional  and  related  clause, 
may  be  subjoined,  that  consequently  do  not  admit  the  downward 
closing  phrase. 

The  rising  tritone  indicates  the  most  immediate  connection 
between  parts  of  a  sentence,  separated  by  the  time  of  the  pause. 
The  ditone  carries  on  the  sense  in  the  next  degree.     The  phrase 


THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES.  193 

of  the  monotone  denotes  a  diminished  relationship  between 
divided  members :  the  failing  ditone  still  less ;  and  the  down- 
ward tritone  with  rising  concretes,  produces  the  fullest  suspension 
of  sense,  without  positively  limiting  its  further  continuation. 
Now  as  the  triad  of  the  cadence,  produces  a  maximum  of  dis- 
tinction among  the  parts  of  discourse,  and  utterly  terminates  a 
sentence,  a  comparison  of  its  downward  intonation  with  tlie 
respective  characters  of  the  other  phrases,  may  explain  the  causes 
of  the  varying  indication  of  each,  by  showing  the  degrees  of 
their  departure  from  the  form  and  direction  of  this  terminative 
phrase.  The  degrees  of  connection  between  the  members  of  a 
se*tence  are  so  various,  and  the  acceptation  of  them  by  readers 
may  be  so  different,  that  I  do  not  here  pretend  to  assign  the 
species  of  phrase  to  every  kind  of  rhetorical  pause.  From  pre- 
sent knowledge  on  this  subject,  I  would  say  generally,  the  into- 
nation at  some  pauses  may  be  varied,  without  exceptionably 
affecting  either  the  sense  or  expression :  but  there  are  cases  in 
which  the  species  of  phrase,  from  its  exclusive  adaptation  to  the 
character  of  the  pause,  is  absolutely  unalterable. 

The  foregoing  remarks  on  the  use  of  the  phrases  of  melody, 
have  not  been  made  in  allusion  to  common  grammatical  punctua- 
tion. Writers  on  elocution  have  long  since  ascribed  the  faults 
of  readers,  in  part,  to  the  vague  nature  of  these  points,  and  to 
the  distracting  effect  of  the  caprice  of  editors  in  using  them, 

In  the  notation  of  the  following  lines,  the  phrases  of  melody 
are  applied  with  reference,  both  to  my  own  acceptation  of  the 
sense  of  the  author,  however  erroneous  that  may  be,  and  to  its 
distinct  and  appropriate  vocal  representation.  I  have  pre- 
sumed to  differ,  in  the  second  and  in  the  fifth  line,  from  the 
punctuation  of  the  London  edition  of  Todd's  Milton,  from  which 
the  passage  is  taken. 

So  spake  the  Seraph  Abdiel,  faithful  found 

Among  the  faithless,  faithful  only  he  ; 

Among  innumerable  false,  unmoved, 

Unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrified. 

His  loyalty  he  kept,  his  love,  his  zeal  ; 

Nor  number,  nor  example,  with  him  wrought 

To  swerve  from  truth,  or  change  his  constant  mind, 

Though  single. 


194  THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES. 

When  the  reader  looks  upon  the  change  of  pauses,  in  the 
following  notation,  he  must  bear  in  mind,  that  whether  his 
decision  is  favorable  to  it  or  otherwise,  it  may  still  illustrate  my 
idea  of  the  power  and  place  of  the  phrases  of  melody.  If  this 
is  accomplished,  we  need  not  dispute  about  the  free  Anil  of  taste, 
in  the  particular  application  of  these  phrases.  My  pm-pose  in 
this  essay  is  to  explain  some  of  the  untold  functions  of  the 
voice :  not  to  contend  with  those  who  may  otherwise,  know  more 
than  myself, 

In  the  use  of  the  phrases  of  melody,  at  the  pauses  of  discourse, 
the  phrase  is  to  be  applied  to  the  last  syllables  preceding  the 
pause.  Nevertheless,  for  particular  purposes  of  expression,  tfle 
monotone  may  be  continued  on  the  succeeding  syllable. 

As  this  notation,  represents  only  the  use  of  the  phrases  of 
melody  at  pauses,  I  have  marked  the  whole  passage  with  the 
simple  concrete ;  omitting  waves  of  the  second,  on  the  long 
quantities,  which  would  be  its  proper  intonation,  as  dignified 
narrative,  in  the  diatonic  melody. 


So     spake     the 

Se raph 

Ab diel, 

faith— ful    found 

-4-.^-^ 

_4-   4 

^  «r 

't  ^    4 

•^      9 

A — mong 

the 

faith-less. 

Faith- 

-ful 

on ly 

he. 

-,Mt 

4 

fn 

4 

4 

4  ^ 

^    €^ 

li? 

^ 

A — mong        in nu me ra ble    false,     un — moved. 


Un sha — ken,    un se — duced,     un ter ri 

-fied, 

^dd^44^44 

-r 

His 

loy — al— 

— ty      he 

kept, 

his 

love. 

his 

zeal. 

4  4 

i^^-r 

4 

4 

4 

^ 

4           -   -                w           ^    1 

THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES.  195 

Nor    num — ber,      nor      ex — am — ^ple,      with    him    -wrought 


^  it    4 

^-4^ 

4^  4  A 

^ 

r 

^ 

-w — ^ 

w        ^ 

1 

To  STverve 

from  truth,     or 

change 

his 

con— 

-stant 

mind, 

i^# 

"^ 

u-  «r 

4 

¥ 

_«r, 

4 

«r 

Though  sin gle. 


31_^.^ 


The  first  pause  at  Abdiel  is  marked  with  a  falling  ditone, 
because  the  included  member  does  not  necessarily  produce  the 
expectation  of  additional  meaning  or  qualification :  and  because 
this  phrase  does  not  absolutely  dissolve  the  grammatical  concord, 
between  the  members  it  separates.  I  have  set  the  triad  of  the 
cadence  at  faithless,  not  exclusively  upon  the  right  to  assume 
the  sense  as  here  completed ;  but  with  a  view  to  prepare  for  the 
eminent  display  of  the  sentiment  contained  in  the  remainder  of 
the  line.  The  editor  has  marked  this  place  with  a  comma,  and 
thus  made  the  three  succeeding  words,  faithful  only  he,  a 
dependent  clause.  I  have  regarded  this  clause,  and  with  gram- 
matical reason,  as  an  elliptical  sentence,  in  order  to  promote  the 
expressive  efi'ect  of  the  sentiment.  These  words  reiterate  the 
previous  attribution  of  faithfulness  to  Abdiel,  with  the  fur- 
ther aflSrraation  Qf  his  singleness  in  virtue.  This  definite  and 
emphatic  restriction  of  the  individuality  of  the  subject,  is  made 
with  mingled  sentiments  of  regret  over  the  rebellious  rejection 
of  truth,  and  of  exultation  that  Abdiel  alone  has  the  undivded 
merit  of  defending  it.  There  is  a  touch  of  feeling  in  these 
sentiments,  that  even  with  all  other  due  means  for  an  appropriate 
utterance,  cannot,  as  it  seems  to  me,  be  answerably  displayed, 
except  those  sentiments  are  separated  from  preceding  and  suc- 
ceeding thoughts,  by  the  marked  distinctions  of  the  limitary 
cadences.  If  the  word  faithless  should  be  read  with  what  is 
called,  in  the  schools,  a  suspension  of  the  voice,  which  in  their 


196  THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES. 

indefinite  language  means,  avoiding  a  fall,  the  spirit  of  the  suc- 
ceeding clause  will  be  perverted  or  lost.  Milton's  fine  ear,  his 
vivid  feelings,  and  his  discriminating  intellect,  qualified  him  to 
he  a  good  reader ;  and  though  he  may  not  have  been  one  by 
practice,  I  would  with  difficulty  believe, —  he  thought  the  pas- 
sage we  are  here  considering,  with  the  close  sequence,  implied 
by  the  editor's  comma  and  semicolon. 

The  next  pavise  at  false,  is  preceded  by  the  rising  ditone. 
The  structure  of  this  member  evidently  creates  expectancy,  and 
the  species  of  intonation  indicates  the  continuation  of  the  sense. 

Of  the  four  succeeding  pauses,  each  rests  on  a  single  word. 
The  first  three  are  noted  with  the  monotone,  to  foretell  the  con- 
tinued progression  of  the  sense :  the  fourth,  at  terrified,  has 
the  falling  ditone,  to  denote  a  change,  but  not  a  close  of  thought. 
In  ordering  these  four  pauses,  variety  might  be  shown  without 
afi"ecting  the  sense,  by  giving  to  the  last  two  syllables  of 
unshaken,  a  rising  phrase.  The  phrase  at  kept  is  the  rising 
ditone,  and  is  expectant ;  for  love  and  zeal  being  equally  with 
loyalty,  the  objectives  of  kejjt,  are  therefore  held  within  the 
prospective  eye  of  the  grammatical  construction.  But  the  three 
objectives  being  separated  by  the  construction,  the  rising  ditone 
at  he'pt  prepares  the  expectant  attention  to  bring  them  back 
into  company  on  the  ear,  at  the  feeble  but  sufficient  cadence  on 
zeal ;  and  thus  impresses  on  the  auditor,  the  true  syntax  of  the 
sentence. 

At  zeal,  marked  by  the  editor  with  a  semicolon,  I  have 
applied  a  period,  and  a  form  of  the  cadence ;  for  this,  as  just 
stated,  throwing  back  love  and  zeal,  as  objectives  to  the  verb 
kept,  prevents  their  bearing  forward,  as  if  nominatives  to  some 
expected  verb ;  which  might  not  be  avoided  by  employing,  at 
this  place,  one  of  the  continuative  phrases  of  melody,  with  a 
semicolon.  We  may  account  for  the  semicolon  at  zeal,  by  sup- 
posing the  editor  considered  the  following  word  nor,  as  a 
connective.  Yet  it  certainly  begins  a  new  sense ;  and  in  regard 
both  to  its  place  and  its  immediate  repetition,  may  be  looked 
upon  as  only  a  poetical  inversion,  and  a  redundancy  of  negative. 
The  remaining  part  of  the  notation  contains  examples  of  the 
principles  just  elucidated,  and  therefore  needs  no  explanation. 


THE  INTONATION  AT  PAUSES.  197 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  fill  up,  in  part,  a  blank  in  elocu- 
tion, by  giving  a  definite  description  of  the  intonation,  to  be 
joined  with  pauses ;  and  by  illustrating  the  manner  of  framing 
rules  to  direct  the  use  of  the  several  phrases  of  melody.     Those 
who  desire  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  sentences,  for  the 
purpose  of   applying  these   principles,  may  consult  books  of 
rhetoric.     Mr.  Sheridan  writes  with  his  usual  ability,  on  the 
nature  of  pause,  and  gives  numerous  exemplifications  of  its  pro- 
per use.     But  he  makes  no  analysis  of  that  intonation  which  he 
may  perhaps  have  joined  with  it,  in  the  accomplished  practice 
of  his  own  voice.     Mr.  Walker  has  also  given  a  masterly  treatise 
on  this  subject,  in  his  Rhetorical  Grammar.     He  wisely  saw  the 
practical  utility  of  uniting  with  his  view  of  the  temporal  purpose 
of  pause,  an  inquiry  into  the  applicable  forms  of  intonation.    In 
a  philosophical  view  of  the  subject,  his  treatise  contains  no 
description  of  the  functions  of  pitch,  beyond  the  ancient  gene- 
ral distinctions  into  rise,  and  fall,  and  turn.     Not  having  the 
materials,  for  a  specific  discrimination  and  use  of  the  phrases  of 
melody,  he  was  under  the  necessity  of  regarding  his  four  gene- 
ral heads,  as  ultimate  species,  capable  of  no  further  subdivision : 
and  hence,  the  limited,  the  indefinite,  and  the  erroneous  appli- 
cation of  his  whole  doctrine  of  Inflection  at  Pauses.    Mr.  Walker 
undertook  the  investigation  of  the  nature  of  speech,  without 
possessing  a  discriminating  ear ;  without  sufficient  familiarity 
with  certain  distinctions  of  sound,  long  established  in  music  ;  and 
without  seeming  to  keep  in  mind  the  means  and  end  of  philoso- 
phical inquiry.     The  example  of  the  highest  masters  in  natural 
science,  had  taught  that  all  he  should  aim  to  accomplish,  would 
be,  to  discover  the  effective  functions  of  the  voice,  and  to  class 
them  with  known  facts  in  the  history  of  sound.     But  the  most 
precise  nomenclature,  if  not  the  most  comprehensive  histoi-y  of 
tunable  sound,  that  is,  sound  distinguished  from  the  endless 
kinds  of  noise,  is  contained  in  the  science  of  music :  and  Mr. 
Walker  appears  to  have  had  too  feeble  or  too  limited  a  percep- 
tion of  its  clear  and  abundant  discriminations,  to  enable  him  to 
recognize  an  identity,  or  analogy  between  the  speaking  voice, 
and  the  familiar  phenomena  of  musical  sounds. 


198  THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH. 

Even  though  we  might  despair  that  future  inquiry  -will  teach 
us  the  structural  cause  of  the  vanishing  movement,  and  of  the 
orotund,  and  falsetto  voices :  it  is  certainly  now  within  the  ahility 
of  a  disciplined  and  attentive  ear,  to  discover  whether  sounds, 
supposed  to  he  peculiar  to  the  human  voice,  arc  similar  to  others 
that  have  been  accurately  measured  and  definitely  named,  in  the 
classifications  of  music ;  and  consequently  whether  they  might 
be  designated  by  the  same  nomenclature,  as  far  as  the  terms  of 
music  are  applicable  to  the  phenomena  of  speech.  Such  a 
method  of  investigation,  with  its  satisfactory  results,  being  the 
whole  means  and  gains  of  a  true  and  useful  philosophy,  we 
might  as  well  believe,  the  Newtonian  discoveries  in  optics,  could 
have  been  effected,  without  a  previous  acquaintance  with  the 
laws  of  motion,  the  variety  of  colors,  and  the  relations  of 
mathematical  quantity,  as  look  for  a  description,  and  an  avail- 
able arrangement  of  the  phenomena  of  the  human  voice,  from 
one  who  is  inrnorant  of  the  known  distinctions  of  sound. 


SECTION  XIII. 
Of  the  G-rouping  of  Speech. 

I  HAVE  adopted  a  term  from  the  art  of  painting,  to  designate 
the  instrumentality  of  pauses,  and  certain  uses  of  the  voice,  in 
uniting  the  related  ideas  of  discourse,  and  separating  those 
which  are  unrelated  to  each  other. 

The  inversions  of  style,  the  intersections  of  expletives,  and 
the  wide  separation  of  antecedents  and  relatives,  allowed  in 
poetry,  may  be  sufficiently  perspicuous,  through  the  circum- 
spection of  the  mind,  and  the  advancing  span  of  the  eye, 
in  the   deliberate   perusal  of  a  sentence.     But  in  listening  to 


THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH.  I99 

reading  or  to  speech,  we  can  employ  no  scrutinizing  hesitation  : 
and  though  the  memory  may  retrace,  to  a  certain  limit,  the 
intricacies  of  construction,  the  best  discernment  cannot  always 
anticipate  the  sense  of  a  succeeding  member,  nor  the  nature 
and  position  of  its  pause.  The  higher  poetry,  in  the  contriving 
spirit  of  its  eloquence,  gives  many  instances  of  extreme  involu- 
tion of  style.  A  reader,  therefore,  is  frequently  obliged  to 
employ  other  means,  for  exhibiting  the  true  relationship  of 
words,  besides  the  simple  current  of  utterance,  that  may  be 
sufficient  for  the  clear  syntax  of  a  more  natural  idiom. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  means  by  which  deviations 
from  the  simple  construction  of  sentences  may  be  rendered  per- 
spicuous in  speech : 

Pauses ;  here  to  be  regarded  merely  as  divisional  agents. 

The  Phrases  of  melody ;  already  in  part  explained. 

A  reduction  of  the  pitch  and  the  force  of  the  voice,  for  which 
I  use  the  term  Abatement. 

A   quickness  of  utterance ;   here    called  the  Flight  of  the 
voice :  and 

A  mode   of  indicating  grammtical   connection,  that  may  be 
named  the  Emphatic  Tie. 

I  have  summed  up  the  several  means  here  enumerated,  under 
the  generic  term  Grouping,  in  order  to  explain  their  purposes 
by  metaphorical  illustration  ;  and  have  distinguished  each  by  a 
specific  name,  thereby  to  invite  attention  to  the  subject,  by  the 
institution  of  a  definite  nomenclature. 

The  most  common  form  of  grouping  the  related  parts  of  a 
sentence,  under  a  given  condition  of  the  voice,  is  by  its  con- 
tinuity within  the  limits  of  pauses.  This  subject  is  so  extensively 
treated  in  the  Art  of  Elocution,  that  I  give  here  but  a  single 
instance  of  the  power  of  the  pause,  in  separating,  to  a  certain 
degree,  the  ideas  of  a  sentence,  and  in  giving  the  proper  inde- 
pendency to  each.  Let  us  take,  from  the  second  book  of 
Paradise  Lost,  the  description  of  Death's  advancing  to  meet 
Satan,  on  his  arrival  at  the  gates  of  Hell. 

Satan  was  now  at  hand  and  from  his  seat 
The  monster  moving  onward  came  as  fast 
With  horrid  strides. 


200  THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH. 

I  have  omitted  the  punctuation  of  this  passage :  and  if  cor- 
respondingly read  without  a  pause,  it  would  not  be  absolutely 
destitute  of  meaning ;  for  the  auditor  would  understand  the 
general  course  of  the  action  described.  But  there  could  be  no 
expressive  picture  of  the  whole,  through  the  marked,  but  con- 
nected individuality  of  its  parts.  There  are  here  four  sepa- 
rate groups  of  thought,  which  should  be  indicated  by  three  pauses. 

Satan  was  now  at  hand  —  and  from  his  seat 
The  monster  moving  —  onward  came  as  fast — 
With  hoiTid  strides. 

The  first  division,  ending  with  at  hand,  gives  notice  of  the 
rapid  approach  of  Satan.  The  second  represents  the  monster 
Death  rising  from  his  seat,  and  is  insulated  by  a  pause  at 
moving.  This  division  is  properly  separated  from  the  next 
onward  came  as  fast ;  for  though  the  last  describes  the  further 
movement  of  Death,  and  in  this  view  might  seem  to  forbid  the 
separation,  yet  its  principal  aim  is  to  show  the  speed  of  his 
progress  by  comparing  it  with  that  of  Satan  ;  and  this  justifies 
the  distinction,  here  made.  The  last  division,  with  horrid 
strides,  must  be  separated  from  the  preceding :  for  if  read, 
onward  came  as  fast  with  horrid  strides,  the  immediate  connec- 
tion of  the  manner  of  movement  with  the  declaration  of  the 
likeness  between  the  time  of  it,  in  the  two  characters,  might 
authorize  the  conclusion  that  Death  was  striding,  as  fast  as 
Satan  was  striding.  Whereas  the  pause  at  fast,  refers  that 
manner  of  moving  onward,  to  Death  alone,  agreeably  to  a  pre- 
vious part  of  the  context,  where  Satan  is  described,  as  moving 
on  'swift  wings.' 

Some  of  the  uses  of  the  Phrases  of  melody  were  stated  in 

the  preceding  section.     I  here  ofier  one  or  two  examples  of  the 

efiect  of  an  appropriate  melody,  in  carrying  on  the  connection 

of  thought,   and    in    producing   an    immediate    perception    of 

grammatical  relationship : 

On  the  other  side. 
Incensed  with  indignation,  Satan  stood 
Unterrified,  and  like  a  Comet  burned, 
That  fires  the  length  of  Ophiuchus  huge, 
In  the  arctic  sky. 


THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH.  201 

Should  the  phrase  of  the  falling  ditone  be  used  at  the  necessary 
pause,  after  burned,  it  will,  to  the  ear,  destroy  the  grammatical 
concord  between  the  relative  that  and  the  antecedent,  comet. 
By  applying  the  monotone  to  the  two  words  in  italics,  that  con- 
cord will  be  properly  marked,  notwithstanding  the  intervening 
pause  at  burned:  the  grouping  power  of  the  melody,  in  this 
case,  counteracting  the  dividing  agency  of  the  pause. 

A  similar  instance  of  the  influence  of  the  monotone,  in  effect- 
ing a  close  connection  of  the  antecedent  with  the  relative,  is 
shown  at  the  pause  after  unheard,  in  the  following  lines : 

First,  Moloch,  horrid  king,  besmeared  with  blood 
Of  human  sacrifice,  and  parents'  tears; 
Though,  for  the  noise  of  drums  and  timbrels  loud. 
Their  children's  cries  unheard,  that  passed  through  fire 
To  his  grim  idol. 

Let  us  take  one  more  example,  illustrative  of  this  principle  of 
a  grouping  intonation : 

Art  thou  that  traitor-angel,  art  thou  he 

Who  first  broke  peace  in  heaven,  and  faith,  till  then 

Unbroken  ? 

In  this  passage  the  phrase,  in  heaven,  is  interposed  between 
peace  and  faith,  the  two  objectives  of  brohe.  Now,  that  the 
syntactic  connection  between  these  words  may  be  impressively 
shown,  the  slighest  pause  only  is  admissible  after  heaven ;  and 
a  more  conspicuous  one  must  be  placed  after  faith.  But 
the  further  expletive,  till  then  unbroken,  is  immediately  con- 
nected with  faith ;  and  the  only  means  for  representing  this 
close  relationship,  in  contravention  to  the  delay  of  the  pause, — 
so  necessary,  after /az'^/t,  for  another  point  of  perspicuity, —  is 
by  using  the  phrase  of  the  rising  ditone  or  the  monotone  ou 
and  faith.  Thus  the  pause  at  this  word,  represents  clearly  the 
full  government  of  the  verb  broke,  while  the  continuative  phrase 
of  melody  at  that  pause,  prevents  its  dissolving  the  connection 
of  the  previous  sense  with  the  succeeding  expletive  clause,  till 
then  unbroken.  The  pages  of  poetry  are  full  of  instances  of 
phraseology  that  require  the  management  of  the  voice  here 
14 


202  THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH. 

described.  Milton  and  Shakspeare  cannot  be  read  well,  without 
strict  attention  to  the  apparent  opposition  between  the  purposes 
of  the  pause  and  of  the  sense,  and  to  the  Reconciling  Power  of 
the  phrases  of  melody. 

A  reduction  of  the  Pitch,  and  Force  of  the  voice  being 
generally  combined  in  reading,  I  have,  in  this  section,  desig- 
nated them  collectively,  by  a  single  term.  Abatement.  Common 
elementary  books  sufficiently  explain  the  nature  and  uses  of  this 
means  for  denoting  the  sense  and  sentiment  of  discourse.  Its 
power  of  grouping  together  the  related  parts  of  sentences,  is 
shown  by  the  well  known  utterance,  in  a  parenthesis. 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  the  perspicuity,  to  be  given  to  a  sen- 
tence, by  the  Flight  of  the  voice.  There  is  a  familiar  rule  in 
elocution,  which  directs  us  to  use  a  quickened  utterance  on 
common  expletive  clauses.  This  function  may  be  extended  to 
other  grammatical  constructions.  I  give  it  here  the  importance 
of  a  name,  and  an  illustration,  from  its  affording  assistant  means 
for  representing  the  sense  of  some  of  those  instances  of  close- 
trimmed  phraseology  and  extreme  inversion,  occasionally  found 
in  the  higher  species  of  poetical  composition. 

In  the  following  example,  the  part  requiring  the  flight  of  the 
voice  is  marked  in  italics.  \ 

You  and  I  have  heard  our  fathers  say, 
There  was  a  Brutus  once,  that  would  have  brook'd 
The  eternal  Devil  to  keep  his  state  in  Rome 
As  easily,  as  a  king. 

The  word  easily,  here  qualifies  the  verb  brook'd ;  and  one  of 
the  means  for  impressing  this  on  the  auditor,  is  by  the  rapid 
flight  here  directed.  A  London  edition  of  Reed's  Shakspeare, 
from  which  this  passage  is  quoted,  has  a  pause  after  Rome. 
The  rationale  of  the  flight,  consisting  in  assigning  the  shortest 
lapse  of  time  between  the  utterance  of  related  words,  suggests 
the  obliteration  of  this  pause,  and  the  addition  of  a  slight  one 
after  easily.  This  tends  to  prevent  the  adverb  from  passing  as 
a  qualification  of  keeping  his  state,  which  certainly  cannot  be 
the  sense  of  the  author;  but  which  on  instant  hearing,  might 
be  mistaken  for  it,  without  the  aid  of  the  altered  pause  and  the 


i 


THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH.  203 

flight.  This  is  not  the  place  to  speak  of  the  nice  points  of  em- 
phasis and  of  melody,  to  be  connected  with  the  flight  in  this 
passage,  in  order  to  give  clearness  and  strength  to  its  eff"ect. 

Say  first,  for  Heaven  hides  nothing  from  thy  view, 
Nor  the  deep  tract  of  Hell. 

To  make  it  appear  at  once,  in  speech,  that  the  deep  tract  of 
hell  is  equally  with  heaven,  a  nominative  to  hides,  the  phrase 
of  the  monotone  must  be  used  at  vieiv,  in  addition  to  the  flight 
of  the  voice  on  the  portion  marked  in  italics ;  nor  should  there 
be  a  pause  at  vieiv,  as  given  by  the  editor. 

If  the  mere  grammarian  should  raise  objections  to  any  of 
these  proposed  changes  of  punctuation,  he  must  recur  to  the 
design  of  this  section.  AVe  speak  now  of  the  means  of  address- 
ing the  ear;  and  its  jealous  demands  sometimes  justify  a  neglect 
of  the  usual  temporal  pauses,  from  the  sense  and  expression 
in  these  cases  being  more  obvious  without  them.  The  art  of 
reading-well  may  compensate  for  voluntary  faults  on  some 
points,  by  the  accomplishment  of  eminent  efi'ects  on  others. 

By  the  grouping  of  Emphasis,  or  what  is  here  called  the  Em- 
phatic Tie,  I  mean  the  application  of  stress  to  words,  not 
otherwise  requiring  distinction,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  asso- 
ciating those  ideas  which  cannot,  by  any  other  means  of  vocal 
syntax,  if  we  may  so  speak,  be  brought  together  or  exhibited  in 
their  true  grammatical  connection.  The  nature  of  this  form  of 
grouping,  may  be  easily  understood :  for  related  words,  however 
disjoined  in  composition,  are  at  once  brought  together  within  the 
field  of  hearing,  in  their  real  relationships,  whenever  they  are 
raised  into  attractive  importance,  by  force  or  any  other  kind  of 
emphasis. 

The  following  lines,  from  Collins'  '  Ode  on  the  passions,' 
embrace  a  construction,  requiring  the  emphatic  tie. 

When  Cheerfulness,  a  Nymph  of  healthiest  hue, 

Her  bow  across  her  shoulder  flung. 

Her  buskins  gemm'd  with  morning  dew, 

Blew  an  inspiring  air,  that  dale  and  thicket  rung, 

The  hunter's  call,  to  Faun  and  Dryad  known. 


204  THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH. 

These  last  two  lines  have  an  embarrassing  construction.  The 
phrases  inspiring  air^  and  hunter  s  call  are  in  apposition ;  but 
there  intervenes  a  clause,  that  might  make  rung  pass  for  an 
active  verb,  and  thereby  render  call  the  objective  to  it.  To 
show,  therefore,  that  by  hunter  s  call  the  author  means  the 
inspiring  air,  previously  mentioned,  the  words  marked  in  italics 
should  receive  emphatic  stress.  This  is  the  best  means  for 
clearly  impressing  on  the  ear,  that  natural  order  which  is  inter- 
rupted by  the  construction. 

This  emphatic  tie  is  often  employed  in  combination  with  other 
means  of  grouping.  Thus,  in  the  several'examples,  illustrating 
the  use  of  the  phrases  of  melody,  their  influence  will  be  assisted 
by  applying  this  connecting  emphasis  to  comet  and  fires  ;  chil- 
dren's and  passed ;  peace  and  faith.  In  the  examples  of  the 
flight,  the  relationships  between  the  words  brook' d  and  easih/  ; 
and  between  heaven  hides  nothing  and  nor  the  deep  tract  of 
hell,  will  be  more  manifest  by  the  additional  use  of  the  em- 
phatic tie. 

In  short,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  employ  all  the  means  of 
grouping  upon  a  single  sentence,  in  order  to  correct  an  irregular 
syntax,  and  supply  an  ellipsis  to  the  ear.  The  extreme  distor- 
tion of  English  idiom  in  the  following  lines,  must  be  exceedingly 
perplexing  to  a  reader :  and,  as  far  as  I  understand  the  gram- 
mar, and  sense  of  the  description,  can  be  rendered  somewhat 
less  embarrassing,  only  by  the  use  of  all  these  means.  The  pas- 
sage is  taken  from  the  fourth  book  of  Paradise  Lost,  at  the  end 
of  Satan's  address  to  the  sun. 

Thus  -while  he  spake,  each  passion  dimm'd  his  face 
Thrice  chang'd  with  pale,  ire,  envy,  and  despair; 
AYhich  marr'd  his  borrow'd  visage,  and  betray'd 
Him  counterfeit,  if  any  eye  beheld. 

Milton  uses  the  word  pale,  here,  and  again  near  the  close  of 
his  tenth  book,  as  a  substantive.  Its  common  adjective-meaning 
tends  to  throw  some  confusion  into  the  sentence.  Ire,  envy, 
and  despair,  are  in  apposition  with  passion,  and  are  severally 
concordant  with  the  distributive  pronoun  each.     Now  the  only 


THE  GROUPING  OF  SPEECH.  205 

manner  in  which  I  can  approximate  towards  a  clear  representa- 
tion of  this  blameable  piece  of  latinity,  is  by  making  a  quick 
flight  over  the  portion,  dimmd  his  face  thrice  changed  tvith 
pale,  and  by  an  abatement  thereon ;  by  laying  a  strong  em- 
phasis on'  each  passion,  and  on  ire,  envy,  and  despair,  thus 
marking  the  concord,  by  the  emphatic  tie ;  and  by  applying  the 
phrase  of  the  rising  ditone,  with  a  pause,  at  pale. 

After  all,  it  is  a  hard  picture  to  paint,  for  a  taste  that  will 
have  true  colors,  well  laid  on. 

Upon  these  last  two  subjects,  we  have  been  more  occupied, 
with  the  audible  means  for  marking  the  sense  of  discourse,  than 
with  the  signs  of  expression.  But  the  delineation  of  sense 
must,  in  all  cases,  be  co-existent  with  the  representation  of 
what  is  distinctively  called  sentiment. 

In  the  present  section,  and  in  other  parts  of  this  essay,  the 
exemplifications  are  chiefly  extracted  from  two  illustrious  Poets  : 
since  the  boundless  range  of  their  sentiments ;  the  arresting, 
but  resolvable  intricacy  of  their  style ;  the  thoughtful  bearing 
of  their  emphasis  ;  together  with  the  insignificance  of  scarcely  a 
word,  afford  every  variety  of  construction,  and  every  turn  of 
feeling,  for  exercising  the  full-suflScient,  and  illuminating  powers 
of  the  voice.  And  as  the  greater  includes  the  less,  I  am  per- 
suaded, that  should  the  principles  therein  established,  be  adopted 
by  the  reader,  he  will  have  no  great  diflficulty  in  applying  them, 
to  more  simple  and  natural  constructions,  whether  of  conversa- 
tion, or  of  narrative,  or  impassioned  discourse,  both  in  poetry 
and  prose.  But  while  thus  drawn  aside,  from  the  perfection  of 
nature  in  the  human  voice,  to  eulogize  the  admirable  things  of 
intellect,  which  it  is  intended  and  ready  to  display ;  let  me  again 
repeat,  I  have  taken  upon  me,  not  the  part  of  the  Rhetorician, 
but  merely  of  a  Physiologist  of  Speech. 


206  THE  RISING  OCTAVE. 

SECTION  XIV. 
Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Octave. 

Ix  the  foregoing  sections,  the  variation  of  Pitch  was  described, 
only  as  it  appears  in  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement  through 
the  interval  of  a  single  tone. 

It  was  shown,  under  the  head  of  the  melody  of  simple  Narra- 
tive, that  the  vanish  never  rises  above  the  interval  of  a  tone ; 
and  that  changes  of  the  radical  pitch,  whether  upward  or  down- 
ward, never  exceed  the  limits  of  this  same  interval.  Now,  such 
plain  narrative  melody  as  then  supposed,  is  rarely  found  of  long 
continuance :  but  to  avoid  confusing  the  subject,  I  deferred  the 
notice  of  those  variations,  both  of  concrete  and  discrete  pitch, 
so  generally  interspersed  throughout  its  current.  The  wider 
intervals  of  pitch,  used  for  expression,  in  the  course  of  a  dia- 
tonic melody,  are  now  to  be  described. 

By  the  term  rising  Octave,  when  applied  to  speech,  is  meant 
the  movement  of  the  voice,  from  any  assumed  radical  place, 
through  superior  parts  of  the  scale,  until  it  ends  or  vanishes  in 
the  eighth  degree  above  that  radical  place.  This  concrete  inter- 
val is  employed  for  the  expression  of  interrogation ;  and  for 
astonishment,  wonder,  and  admiration,  when  they  imply  some 
slight  sentiment  of  doubt  or  inquiry.  It  is  further  used,  for 
the  emphatic  distinction  of  words.  Nor  is  it  limited  to  phrases, 
having  the  common  grammatical  construction  of  a  question ; 
for  even  declaratory  sentences,  are  made  interrogative  by  the 
use  of  this  interval. 

Although  the  voice  in  interrogation,  and  emphasis,  may 
sometimes  rise  above  the  eighth,  of  the  natural  voice,  and  into 
the  falsette ;  the  octave  is  the  widest  interval  of  the  speaking 
scale,  technically  regarded  in  this  work.  It  expresses  therefore 
the  most  forcible  degree  of  interrogation,  and  of  emphasis,  on 
a  rising  interval.  It  is  the  appropriate  intonation  of  questions 
accompanied  with  sneer,  contempt,  mirth,  raillery,  and  the 
temper  or  triumph  of  peevish  or  indignant  argument. 


THE  RISING  OCTAVE.  207 

From  the  time  required  in  drawing  out  the  interval  of  an 
octave,  this  form  of  interrogation  can  be  executed  conspicuously, 
only  on  a  syllable  of  extended  quantity.  How  then  can  the 
interrogative  expression  be  given  to  a  short  and  immutable 
syllable  ?  The  means  for  eflFecting  this,  will  be  described  here- 
after, with  particular  reference  to  interrogative  sentences.  It 
may  be  here  transiently  illustrated  by  the  following  notation  : 


-M— if    ^    ^    /L £ 


7^^=t 


In  this  diagram,  a  discrete  change  or  skip  is  made  from  the 
radical  line  of  the  concrete  octave,  to  a  line  along  the  hight  of 
its  vanish.  Now  immutable  syllables,  in  an  interrogative  sen- 
tence, are  transferred  by  this  discrete  or  radical  change,  to  a 
line  of  pitch  at  the  summit  of  the  concrete  interrogative  inter- 
val, and  thus  discretely  produce  the  expressive  effect  of  that 
interval,  though  less  remarkably  than  the  indefinite  syllables  which 
pass  through  the  same  extent  of  the  scale  by  the  concrete  rise. 
As  there  are  more  short  and  unaccented,  than  long  and  accented 
syllables,  in  discourse,  the  radical  change,  here  exhibited,  gives 
the  general  character  of  interrogative  intonation.  The  diagram 
shows  further,  that  after  the  radical  pitch  of  the  short  quantities 
has  assumed  the  summit-line  of  the  octave,  it  proceeds  in  the 
diatonic  melody  on  that  line,  until  the  occurrence  of  an  indefi- 
nite syllable ;  when  the  radical  pitch  descends,  to  form  a  new 
concrete  rise  of  the  octave.  Thus  it  appears,  the  rule  of  into- 
nation, laid  down  when  speaking  of  the  diatonic  melody  of 
simple  narration,  does  not  apply  to  the  melody  of  interrogative 
sentences ;  for  these  employ  a  more  extended  concrete  interval, 
and  a  wider  discrete  transition  in  their  changes  of  radical  pitch. 

When  an  octave  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  emphasis,  the  voice, 
after  its  concrete  rise  on  the  emphatic  word,  immediately  de- 
scends to  the  original  line  of  radical  pitch,  as  in  the  following 
notation. 


208  THE  RISING  FIFTH. 


_^^  ^  ft  dZ^H^. 


4-S-4- 


But  this  subject  of  emphasis  will  be  considered  particularly, 
hereafter. 

The  concrete  octave  and  its  radical  change,  being  employed 
for  very  earnest  interrogation,  and  for  a  high  degree  of  expres- 
sive emphasis,  are  of  less  frequent  occurrence  in  speech,  than 
the  following  intervals  of  the  fifth  and  the  third. 


SECTION  XV. 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Fifth. 

The  rising  radical  and  vanishing  Fifth,  like  the  octave,  is 
used  for  interrogation ;  for  wonder  and  admiration,  when  they 
embrace  a  slight  degree  of  inquiry  or  doubt ;  and  for  emphasis. 
It  has,  however,  less  of  the  smart  inquisitiveness,  of  this  last 
interval ;  is  the  most  common  form  of  interrogative  intonation : 
and  without  having  the  piercing  force  of  the  octave,  is  equally 
capable  of  energy,  and  is  always  more  dignified  in  its  expression. 
The  explanatory  remarks  in  the  last  section,  on  the  subject  of  the 
change  of  radical  pitch,  in  interrogation  and  emphasis,  apply  to 
the  like  uses  of  the  fifth.  That  is,  in  interrogative  sentences,  after 
the  voice,  in  adapting  itself  to  short  quantities,  has  made  a  dis- 
crete change  by  radical  pitch,  through  the  interval  of  a  fifth,  the 
succeeding  melody  continues  at  its  elevation,  till  again  brought 
down  for  the  purpose  of  a  new  concrete  rise.     And  in  like 


THE  RISING  FIFTH.  209 

manner,  after  the  use  of  the  fifth,  for  emphatic  distinction  on  a 
single  word,  the  pitch  immediately  returns  to  the  original  line 
of  the  current  melody. 

From  the  preceding  account  of  the  intonation  of  the  octave 
and  of  the  fifth,  we  learn,  that  their  effects  are  cognizable  under 
two  different  forms,  the  Concrete  rise,  and  the  Radical  change ; 
that  the  octave  is  impressed  more  remarkably  on  the  ear ;  and 
that  the  distinction  between  the  interrogative  and  emphatic 
use  of  these  intervals,  consists  in  the  difierence  of  the  number 
of  syllables,  to  which  they  are  respectively  applied. 

It  was  said,  the  iatonation  of  the  octave,  whether  by  concrete 
or  by  radical  pitch,  is  rarely  employed ;  since  a  rise  of  eight  de- 
grees above  the  ordinary  line  of  utterance  carries  most  speakers 
into  the  falsetto.  And  even  with  those  in  whom  the  rise  might 
not  exceed  the  natural  voice,  the  melody  when  suddenly  changed 
in  radical  pitch,  would  often  be  ludicrous,  from  contrast ;  or 
would  be  in  danger  of  breaking  into  the  falsetto  in  its  variations  ; 
or  would  be  beyond  the  limits  of  the  speaker's  skillful  execution. 
These  objections  do  not  apply  to  an  occasional  skip  of  radical 
pitch  through  the  ascent  of  the  fifth ;  the  variation  being  less 
striking  in  contrast ;  and  the  interval  of  a  fifth  above  the 
common  range  of  the  voice,  being  rarely  beyond  practicable 
management. 

Besides  the  above  described  uses  of  the  octave  and  fifth,  some 
canting  forms  of  exclamation,  and  other  familiar  voices,  in 
common  life,  are  made  on  these  intervals.  They  require  no 
further  notice. 


210  THE  RISING  THIRD. 


SECTION  XVI. 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Rising  Third. 

The  concrete  rislnof  Third,  like  the  two  last  named  intervals, 
is  used  for  interrogative  expression,  and  for  the  intonation  of 
emphasis.  But  its  degree  in  both  these  cases,  is  less  than  that 
of  the  fifth.  It  is  the  sign  of  interrogation  in  its  most  moderate 
form ;  and  carries  with  it  none  of  those  sentiments  which, 
jointly  with  the  question,  were  allotted  to  those  other  move- 
ments. 

Besides  the  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  the  plain  diatonic 
melodj,  by  an  occasional  use  of  the  octave  and  fifth,  it  must 
now  be  added,  that  the  general  current  of  the  tone  is  further 
varied,  by  the  introduction  of  the  interval  of  the  concrete  third, 
and  its  change  of  radical  pitch.  It  is  more  frequently  used 
than  either  of  the  two  former;  for,  although  more  rarely 
employed  than  the  fifth,  as  an  interrogative,  it  is  a  common 
form  of  emphatic  intonation.  In  describing  the  phrases  of 
melody,  it  was  said,  the  rising  tritone,  or  upward  succession  of 
three  radicals,  on  as  many  syllables,  is  occasionally  employed. 
Now  by  the  nature  of  the  scale,  three  radical  places  contain  the 
interval  of  a  third :  it  is  therefore  the  space  or  interval  occupied 
by  the  constituents  of  a  tritone,  rejecting  the  vanish  of  the  last, 
that  makes  the  proper  concrete  third.  This  concrete  as  regards 
interrogative  effect,  is  more  impressive  than  the  discrete  rise  of 
the  radicals  of  the  tritone :  for  if  the  "words,  Cro  you  there,  — 
in  grammar  equally  a  command  and  a  question,  —  be  uttered 
with  the  phrase  of  the  rising  tritone,  or  one  syllable  successively 
a  tone  in  its  radical  pitch  above  the  preceding,  with  a  doivnward 
vanish  on  each,  it  will  have  the  character  of  an  imperative 
sentence.  But  if  the  first  word  rise  concretely  a  third,  that  is 
through  the  space  occupied  by  the  tritone ;  and  the  last  two  be 
carried  by  discrete  skip  to  the  hight  of  the  concrete,  the  efiect  will 


THE  RISING  THIRD.  211 

be  interrogative,  notwithstanding  the  last  two  may  bear  the 
downward  vanish.  The  same  will  be  the  eifect  when  the  second 
word  has  the  concrete,  and  the  last  the  radical  change ;  or, 
when  the  first  and  second  have  the  common  diatonic  melody, 
and  the  last  alone  the  concrete  rise. 

There  is  a  form  of  replication  in  common  speech,  especially 
used  by  the  Scots,  consisting  of  a  repetition  of  the  afiirmative 
yes  or  aye,  in  the  rising  third;  and  while  the  words  seem  to 
pay  the  courtesy  of  assent,  the  interrogative  nature  of  the 
intonation  still  insinuates  the  hesitation  of  doubt  or  surprise. 
Should  the  sentiment  conveyed  by  these  words  be  of  unusual 
energy,  the  expression  will  assume  the  form  of  the  fifth,  or 
octave. 

When  the  reader  will  hereafter  have  acquired  the  prefatory 
knowledge,  necessary  for  the  full  comprehension  of  the  nature 
of  emphasis,  it  will  be  definitely  explained,  in  what  manner,  and 
on  what  occasions  the  octave,  fifth,  and  third,  are  employed,  in 
this  important  function  of  correct  and  impressive  speech.  But 
as  the  emphasis,  given  to  prominent  words  of  concessive,  con- 
ditional, and  hypothetical  sentences,  carries  with  it,  in  a  mea- 
sure, the  latent  sentiment  of  an  interrogatory,  its  application 
may  properly  be  illustrated  here.  The  following  examples  of 
conditionality  and  concession,  call  for  one  of  the  wider  rising 
intervals,  on  the  words  marked  in  italics  : 

Then  -when  I  am  thy  captive  talk  of  chains, 
Proud  limitary  Cherub !  but  ere  then, 
Far  heavier  load  thyself  expect  to  feel 
From  my  prevailing  arm,  though  Heaven's  kiiig 
Ride  on  thy  ■wings. 

So  in  the  hypothesis  of  the  following  sentence : 

If  I  must  contend,  said  he, 
Best  with  the  best,  the  sender,  not  the  sent. 

And  the  same  with  the  exceptive  phrase  marked  in  these  lines : 

The  undaunted  fiend  what  this  might  be,  admired ; 
Admired,  not  fear'd.     God  and  his  Son  except. 
Created  thing  naught  valued  he,  nor  shunn'd. 


212  THE  RISING  THIRD. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  to  decide  here,  which  of  the  wider  inter- 
vals is  to  be  set  respectively,  on  the  strong  words  of  these 
examples.  The  citations  were  made,  merely  to  show  that  the 
rising  third,  fifth,  or  octave,  may  be  used  on  the  emphatic  sylla- 
bles of  such  sentences. 

The  interval  of  the  minor  third,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  first 
section,  consists  of  one  tone  and  a  half.  It  has  a  plaintive 
expression,  but  is  not,  as  far  as  I  have  observed,  employed  in 
speech  for  any  of  those  purposes  of  interrogation,  conditionality, 
or  concession,  which  are  here  ascribed  to  the  major  third. 

It  may  perhaps  be  useful,  in  this  place,  for  the  reader  to  take 
a  retrospect  over  the  subject  of  melody,  as  it  has  thus  far  been 
described ;  and  to  look  upon  it  as  consisting  of  the  diatonic 
phrases  formerly  enumerated,  varied  for  the  purposes  of  inter- 
rogation, and  of  emphasis,  by  the  occasional  introduction  of  the 
Avider  rising  intervals  of  the  octave,  fifth,  and  third.  In  speak- 
ing of  the  melody  of  simple  narrative,  the  radical  changes  of 
that  style  were  reduced  to  seven  elementary  phrases.  It  may 
be  thought,  the  further  use  of  these  wider  intervals,  in  the 
transitions  of  radical  pitch,  justifies  an  additional  nomenclature, 
for  the  phi'ases,  employed  in  expression.  It  does  so;  and  the 
Phrase  of  the  Eighth,  the  Fifth,  and  the  Third,  when  the 
transition  is  made  by  the  radical  skip,  either  in  an  upward  or 
downward  direction,  are  the  terms  for  designating  these  new 
forms  of  melodial  progression  in  speech. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  213 


SECTION  XVII. 

Of  the  Intonation  of  Interrogative  Sentences. 

Having  assigned  an  interrogative  expression  to  the  rising 
octave,  fifth,  and  third,  I  defer,  for  a  moment,  the  history  of 
the  remaining  forms  of  pitch,  to  describe  the  manner  of  employ- 
ing those  intervals,  in  the  course  of  an  interrogative  sentence ; 
and  thereby  to  learn,  how  they  are  related  both  to  its  current 
melody,  and  to  its  cadence. 

With  a  view  to  exhibit  the  striking  effect  of  the  interrogative 
intervals,  let  us  take  the  following  merely  declaratory  or  assertive 
sentence,  as  contradistinguished  from  the  grammatical  construc- 
tions that  generally  indicate  a  question  : 

Give  Brutus  a  statue  with  his  ancestors. 

This  sentence  is  significative  of  an  intention  to  honor  the 
patriot ;  is  imperative  in  its  purpose  ;  and  this  purpose  is  ex- 
pressed by  a  downward  movement  on  every  syllable.  But  if 
the  versatile  plebian  should,  the  next  moment,  have  a  new  light 
of  discernment,  he  might  affect  to  refuse  the  honorary  tribute, 
by  repeating  the  very  words  of  the  decree,  with  the  sneering 
intonation  of  a  question. 

Give  Brutus  a  statue  with  his  ancestors? 

The  difference  of  expression  in  these  two  instances,  would  be 
perceptible  to  every  hearer :  nor  could  the  altered  intention  of 
the  speaker,  in  the  last  case,  be  mistaken.  The  conspicuous 
effect  of  this  line,  when  thus  read,  proceeds  from  the  use  of  the 
rising  interval  of  the  fifth  or  octave,  according  to  the  energy  of 
the  case,  on  each  of  the  syllables ;  and  it  shows  the  power  of 
that  rise  in  changing  an  imperative  into  an  interrogative  sen- 
tence.    In  this  way  only,  by  the  concrete,  or  the  radical  rise  of 


214  THE  INTONATION 

a  fifth  or  octave  on  every  syllable,  will  the  question  be  fully 
expressed;  for  should  the  interval  be  employed  upon  every 
word  except  the  last,  and  should  this  be  uttered  with  the  diatonic 
triad,  the  interrogation  will  be  lost.  If  the  interrogative  inter- 
val be  given  to  the  last  word,  and  omitted  on  the  others,  it  will, 
in  some  degree,  denote  an  inquiry ;  but  much  less  forcibly  than 
when  the  intonation  is  applied  to  every  syllable.  Besides 
exhibiting  the  characteristic  of  interrogative  intonation,  the  pre- 
ceding examples  likewise  show  the  effect  of  the  wider  intervals, 
when  compared  with  the  simple  concrete  of  the  tone  or  second, 
in  a  diatonic  melody.  The  manner  of  applying  these  wider  inter- 
vals, for  interrogation,  will  be  presently  described. 

Before  we  enter  on  this. subject,  the  purposes  of  elementary 
instruction  require  some  notice  of  the  varied  extent  of  the 
interrogative  expression ;  since  some  sentences  demand  its  em- 
ployment on  every  syllable,  while  others  are  fully  significative 
of  the  question  by  its  partial  application.  But  to  be  more 
definite : 

By  Thorough  Interrogative  Expression,  I  mean  a  use  of  the 
intended  interval  on  every  syllable  of  the  sentence. 

By  Partial  Interrogative  Expression,  a  use  of  the  interval 
on  one,  or  on  a  few  syllables ;  others,  particularly  those  at  the 
■close,  having  the  melody  of  plain  declarative  discourse.  For 
brevity,  and  for  substitutive  terms,  these  distinctions  may  be 
called,  the  thorough  and  the  partial  interrogation,  or  —  intona- 
tion, or  —  expression. 

The  proper  reading  of  the  questions  contained  in  the  follow- 
ing selections,  may  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  above  named 
divisions.  When  Clarence  enters  guarded,  at  the  end  of  the 
opening  soliloquy  of  King  Richard  III,  Gloster  thus  addresses 
him: 

Brother,  good  day !  what  means  this  armed  guard 
That  waits  upon  your  Grace? 

Here  the  interrogative  intonation  is  heard  only  on  the  clause, 
what  means  this  armed  guard;  the  rest  of  the  sentence  has 
both  the  current  and  cadence  of  the  diatonic  melody. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  215 

When  the  Queen,  in  the  third  scene  of  the  first  act,  says : 

By  Heaven,  I  will  acquaint  liis  Majesty 
Of  those  gross  taunts  I  often  have  endured. 

Gloster  retorts: 

Threat  you  me  with  telling  of  the  King  ? 

This  proud  and  angry  question  must  bear  the  interrogative 
intonation  throughout  its  current,  with  the  rising  interval  at 
the  close,  or  it  will  not  have  the  required  expression. 

As  the  characteristic  intonation  in  each  of  these  questions 
cannot  be  interchangeably  transferred,  and  as  every  question 
makes  a  thorough  or  a  restricted  use  of  the  interrogative  interval ; 
it  would  seem,  there  must  be  some  instinctive  principles,  to 
direct  a  good  reader,  in  designating  the  places  and  marking  the 
limits  of  this  use.  I  propose  in  the  present  section  to  describe, 
the  nature  of  interrogative  sentences ;  and  to  set  forth  some  of 
the  principles  that  appear  to  govern  their  intonation. 

To  state  and  arrange  clearly,  the  causes  that  seem  to  direct 
the  Thorough  and  the  Partial  use  of  interrogative  intonation,  we 
must  consider  both  the  Grammatical  Structure  of  the  question ; 
and  the  Spirit  and  Purpose  included  in  it. 

Sentences  are  employed  interrogatively,  under  various  gram- 
matical forms. 

First.  They  are  constructed  assertively,  and  derive  the  power 
of  a  question  solely  from  intonation.  Let  us  call  these,  Asser- 
tive or  Declaratory  questions.  They  have  an  ironical  turn,  for 
their  intonation  speaks  '  otherwise  than  what  the  words  declare.' 

Second.  They  are  formed  by  reversing  the  usual  position  of 
the  nominative  and  the  verb,  with  its  auxiliary.  Let  these  be 
called,  Common  questions. 

Third.  By  joining  pronouns  to  the  common  question.  These 
we  call.  Pronominal. 

Fourth.  By  joining  adverbs  to  the  common  question.  These, 
Adverbial. 

Fifth.  By  joining  a  negative  to  the  common,  the  pronominal, 
and  the  adverbial.     These,  Negative  questions. 


216  THE  INTONATION 

In  the  Purpose  and  Spirit  of  a  question,  there  may  be  many 
kinds  and  degrees  of  meaning,  and  expression. 

First.  A  question  may  be  made  vrith  an  uncertainty  or  with 
an  entire  ignorance  in  the  interrogator,  on  the  subject  of  the 
question.     This  is  a  question  of  Real  inquiry. 

Second.  The  interrogator,  from  collateral  circumstances,  may 
have  some  intimation  of  Knowledge,  or  a  reservation  of  belief, 
on  what  is  verbally  the  point  of  the  question.  Call  this  a 
question  of  Belief.  Both  these  questions  may  be  made  in  either 
the  second,  third,  or  fourth  grammatical  forms. 

Third.  But  a  question  with  the  negative  construction,  is  made 
as  a  demand  for  an  according  answer ;  and  when  furnished  with 
collateral  grounds  of  belief,  is  sometimes  put  with  the  spirit  of 
triumphant  assertion.  We  may  call  this,  the  Triumphant 
inquiry. 

Fourth.  In  connection  with  claims  to  truth  and  justice, 
a  question  is  sometimes  an  appeal  to  the  candor  of  an 
opponent.  This  is  an  Appealing  question.  To  this  may  be 
added,  the  Conclusive,  the  Exclamatory,  and  the  Imperative : 
all  of  which  requiring  a  downward  intonation,  will  be  described 
under  the  section,  on  Exclamatory  sentences. 

Fifth.  Questions  may  be  addressed  with  an  Earnest  spirit,  or 
with  Moderation.  They  may  be  made  with  Astonishment,  and 
Exultation.  In  short  we  may  say,  that  as  curious,  and  unjust 
and  impertinent  ignorance  is  always  subject  to  the  sway  of 
temper,  questions  are  found  with  every  kind  and  force  of 
passion. 

Upon  the  subject  of  intonation  in  the  various  forms  of  ques- 
tions above  mentioned,  I  here  offer  some  general  rules ;  or 
furnish  approximations  towards  them,  for  the  assistance  of 
future  researches. 

It  may  be  laid  down  as  a  rule,  almost  without  exception,  that 
where  an  interrogative  sentence  has  the  assertive  construction, 
it  requires  the  Thorough  expression.  In  addition  to  an  example 
of  this  case,  given  in  a  preceding  page,  let  us  take  an  instance 
from  Coriolanus,  where  the  same  words  are  used  as  a  declarative 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  217 

and  as  an  interrogative  phrase.     In  the  fifth  scene  of  the  fourth 
act,  the  servant  of  Aufidius  says  to  Coriolanus, 


Where  dwellest  thou? 

Cor. 

Under  the  canopy. 

Ser. 

Under  the  canopy  ? 

Cor. 

Ay. 

Ser. 

Where's  that? 

Cor. 

In  the  city  of  kites  and  crows 

Ser. 

In  the  city  of  kites  and  crows  ? 

The  replications  here  set  in  italics,  should  be  read  with  an 
interrogative  interval  on  every  syllable ;  and  the  reason  seems 
to  be  this.  All  assertive  sentences,  when  put  as  questions,  are 
elliptical :  since  they  imply,  and  should  properly  include  some 
grammatical  phrase  of  interrogation.  Thus  the  speaker  here 
means,  either  with  inquisitive  doubt  as  to  the  words,  did  you 
say,  under  the  canopy  ?  or  with  real  inquiry  as  to  the  place, 
Where  is,  under  the  canopy  ?  And  so  of  the  other  instance. 
But  the  grammatical  phrase  of  the  question  being  omitted  in 
these  cases,  it  is  necessary  to  supply  the  defect  of  the  ellipsis, 
by  the  use  of  a  thorough  interrogative  intonation.  For  when 
the  interrogative  interval  is  applied  exclusively  to  any  one  of  the 
words  or  syllables,  except  the  last,  it  constitutes  a  mere  declara- 
tion, with  an  intonated  emphasis  on  the  word  so  marked.  When 
set  on  many  syllables,  or  on  all  except  one,  it  indeed  pro- 
duces a  degree  of  interrogation, _but  quite  unsatisfactory  to  the 
demands  of  sense,  and  of  the  ear.  Should  the  interrogative 
expression  be  made  on  the  last,  while  the  other  words  are  in 
the  diatonic  melody,  the  reading  will  fall  short  of  the  meaning 
of  the  phrase,  if  it  would  not,  indeed,  misrepresent  it :  since 
the  unexpected  rise  at  the  close,  instead  of  the  consistent  termi- 
nation by  the  diatonic  cadence,  would  produce  an  anomaly  of 
utterance  irreducible,  by  me  at  least,  [^to  any  purpose  of  ex- 
pression. 

When  a  sentence  is  constructed  with  the  interrogative  pro- 
nouns or-  adverbs,  constituting  what  we  called  Pronominal  and 
Adverbial  questions ;  and  embraces  none  of  those  cases  which 
15 


218  THE  INTONATION 

require  the  Thorough  expression,  it  commonly  appears  under 
the  Partial  form  ;  as  in  the  following  examples  : 

Who  hath  descried  the  number  of  the  traitors  ? 
Jlotc  came  the  these  things  to  pass? 
What  sum  owes  he  the  Jew? 

These  lines  do  not  severally  require  a  thorough  expression  ; 
for  the  question  is  here,  sufficiently  marked,  -when  the  interroga- 
tive intervals  are  applied  on  portions  only  of  the  sentence, 
particularly  on  its  emphatic  words.  The  reason  of  the  rule  of 
partial  application  may  he  this.  In  adverbial  and  pronominal 
constructions,  there  is  no  question  about  the  existence  or  agency 
of  the  subject  of  inquiry ;  and  thus  its  part  in  the  sentence  does 
not  call  for  an  interrogative  expression.  The  uncertainty,  is  in 
the  relation  of  that  existence,  to  time,  place,  manner,  number, 
and  degree ;  and  on  these  only,  the  interrogative  intervals  are 
required.  Thus  in  the  first  example,  the  existence  of  the 
traitors  is  admitted ;  the  question  relates  only  to  their  number, 
and  the  person  who  had  seen  them.  In  the  second,  the 
existence  of  the  things,  and  their  agency  in  the  event,  is  ad- 
mitted ;  the  question  being,  in  what  manner,  or  how  they  came 
to  pass.  In  the  third,  the  existence  of  the  debt  is  admitted ; 
the  assertion  being  onl^"  as  to  its  amount.  Some  of  the  excep- 
tions to  the  generality  of  this  rule  will  be  mentioned,  in  speaking 
of  the  varying  sentiments  of  an  interrogative  phrase,  and  of  its 
final  emphatic  syllable. 

When  the  sentence  is  constructed  by  the  nominative  being 
placed  after  the  verb,  or  between  the  verb  and  auxiliary ; 
forming  what  we  call  a  Common  question ;  either  the  Partial  or 
the  Thorough  intonation  is  employed.  I  need  not  illustrate  the 
varieties  of  this  case :  the  reader  can  readily  recur  to  examples 
under  it,  in  which  the  intonation  must  be  determined  by  the 
nature  of  the  sentiment,  the  place  or  places  of  the  emphasis, 
and  the  form  of  the  sentence,  whether  it  is  short  and  simple,  or 
extended  and  complex. 

Common,  pronominal,  and  adverbial  questions  are  made  directly 
to  the  point  of  inquiry,  or  indirectly  by  a  negative,  to  its  opposite. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  219 

The  intonation  of  negative  questions,  has  the  Thorough  or 
Partial  expression ;  according  to  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the 
sentence, —  to  be  illustrated  hereafter. 

When  a  sentence,  besides  the  point  of  the  question,  has  addi- 
tional members  or  clauses  which  contain  an  address  to  a  person, 
or  assertions,  or  expletives,  or  reference  to  causes,  the  expression 
assumes  the  partial  form,  as  in  the  following  instances : 

Of  address : 

Why  with  some  little  train,  my  lord  of  Buckingham? 
Of  assertion : 

Why  did  you  laugh  then,  when  I  said,  Man  delights  not  me  ? 

Of  expletive  : 

WhaVs  Hecuba  to  him,  or  he  to  Hecuba,      * 
That  he  should  weep  for  her? 

Of  cause : 

What  of  his  heart  perceive  you  in  his  face, 
By  any  likelihood  he  show'd  to  day? 

The  reason  of  the  rule,  seems  to  be,  that  the  additional 
clauses,  though  modifying  in  some  degree  the  leading  point  of 
the  question,  yet  do  not,  in  their  separable  membership,  carry 
an  interrogation,  which  the  portion  of  the  sentence,  marked  in 
italics,  and  called  here,  the  point  of  the  question,  does. 

When  two  or  more  questions  of  moderate  temper  are  connected 
by  conjunctions,  or  when,  without  this  connection,  they  follow  in 
series,  it  is  not  necessary  that  each  question  should  severally 
have  the  degree  of  interrogative  expression,  required  in  its 
solitary  use. 

Give  me  thy  hand.     Thus  high,  by  thy  advice, 
And  thy  assistance,  is  king  Richard  seated : 
But  shall  we  wear  these  glories  for  a  day? 
Or  shall  they  last,  and  we  rejoice  in  them? 


220  THE  INTONATION 

Are  you  call'd  forth  from  out  a  world  of  men, 
To  slay  the  innocent?     What  is  my  offence? 
Where  is  the  evidence  that  doth  accuse  me? 
What  lawful  quest  have  given  their  verdict  up 
Unto  the  frowning  judge  ?  or  who  pronounced 
The  bitter  sentence  of  poor  Clarence's  death? 

When  this  rule  is  not  contravened  by  conditions,  requiring 
universally,  the  thorough  expression,  the  question,  in  such 
instances  as  the  above,  is  sometimes  sufficiently  marked,  if  each 
of  the  several  constituents  of  the  series  has  an  interrogative 
interval  only  on  a  single  word ;  and  this  reduces  the  case,  as  far 
as  regards  expression,  to  an  ordinary  sentence,  having  an  em- 
phatic word,  so  signalized  by  the  given  interval.  Perhaps  the 
reason  of  the  rule  is,  that  the  mind  or  ear  of  the  auditor  being 
in  the  feeling,  or  humor  of  the  question,  the  interrogation  is 
sufficiently  indicated  by  the  grammatical  construction. 

With  respect  to  the  Purpose  or  the  Spirit  of  a  question,  some 
notable  circumstances  govern  the  use  of  intonation. 

When  the  question  is  prompted  by  the  ignorance  or  uncer- 
tainty of  the  speaker,  and  thus  contains  a  Real  inquiry,  it 
generally  bears  the  thorough  expression;  which  must  conse- 
quently in  many  instances,  overrule  the  formulae  for  the  partial 
intonation  of  pronominal,  adverbial,  and  common  questions ;  and 
of  questions  in  conjunction,  and  in  series :  as  in  the  following 
examples,  where  the  lines  in  italics,  including  a  question  of  real 
inquiry,  call  for  the  thorough  interrogation  : 

Hamlet.      Dost  thou  hear  me,  old  friend? 

Can  you  play  the  murder  of  Gonzago  7 


Polonius.     Do  you  know  me,   my  lord? 
Hamlet        Excellent  well. 


Hamlet.     Have  you   a  daughter? 
Polonius.  I  have,  my  lord. 


Although  in  the  stated  form  of  this  rule,  only  a  general 
effect  is  ascribed  to  it,  yet,  when  the  question  has  much  earnest- 
ness, its  bearing  is  universal. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  221 

Those  questions,  in  wliicli  the  interrogator  intimates  some 
knowledge,  on  the  subject  of  his  inquiry,  and  which  were  termed, 
questions  of  Belief,  call  for  only  the  partial  intonation.  Under 
this  head,  there  are  even  declarative  questions,  containing  so 
much  of  an  absolute  assertion,  that  they  require  the  slightest 
degree  of  interrogative  expression,  as  in  the  following,  of  Hamlet 
to  Polonius : 

My  lord,  you  play'd  once  in  the  University,  you  say  ? 

There  is  some  doubt  in  this  sentence,  and  it  is  therefore  pro- 
perly marked  as  a  question :  yet  the  phrase,  you  say,  puts  the 
question,  if  such,  as  referring  to  an  event  that  was  known 
before,  to  the  interrogator. 

Of  the  negative  question,  that  seems  to  anticipate,  or  at  least 
to  hope  for,  an  according  answer,  we  find  an  illustration  in 
Shylock's  noted  parallel  between  the  Jew  and  the  Christian, 
with  his  earnest  resolve  upon  revenge. 

He  hath  disgraced  me,  and  hindered  me  of  half  a  million ;  laughed  at  ray 
losses,  mocked  at  my  gains,  scorned  my  nation,  thwarted  my  bargains,  cooled 
my  friends,  heated  mine  enemies ;  and  what's  his  reason  ?  I  am  a  Jew :  Hath 
not  a  Jew  eyes  ?  Hath  not  a  Jew  hands  ?  Organs  ?  Dimensions  ?  Senses  ?  Affec- 
tions? Passions  ?  Fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  subject 
to  the  same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the 
same  winter  and  summer,  as  a  Christian  is  ?  If  you  prick  us,  do  we  not  bleed  ? 
If  you  tickle  us  do  we  not  laugh  ?  If  you  poison  us,  do  we  not  die  ?  And  if  you 
wrong  us,  shall  we  not  revenge  ?  If  we  are  like  you  in  the  rest,  we  will  resem- 
ble you  in  that.  If  a  Jew  wrong  a  Christian,  what  is  his  humility  ?  Revenge. 
If  a  Christian  wrong  a  Jew,  what  should  his  sufferance  be  by  Christian  exam- 

'  e  ?  Why  revenge.  The  villainy  you  teach  me,  I  will  execute ;  and  it  shall  go 
iiard,  but  I  will  better  the  instruction. 

Here  the  questions  begin  with, —  what's  his  reason?  Now  as 
the  answer  is  made  by  the  inquirer  himself,  the  question  is 
rather  one  of  belief,  or  an  appeal,  than  a  real  inquiry,  and  is  to 
be  made  by  rising  intervals,  on  the  first  three  syllables,  with  a 
downward  interval  on  son  ;  thus  constituting  a  partial  interro- 
gation. The  answer  is  a  full  sentence,  and  serves  to  illustrate 
the  expression  of  the  triad  of  the  cadence.  This  triad  is  always 
set  at  a  full  period.     When  therefore,  Shylock,  to  his  own  qucs- 


222  THE  INTONATION 

tion,  responds,  and  assigns  the  reason,  /  am  a  Jew ;  giving  a 
down^Yard  interval  to  /,  and  tlie  triad  of  the  cadence,  -with  its 
downward  vanishes,  to  the  last  three  syllables  ;  he  joins  to  the 
close  of  the  sense  by  words,  a  positive  closing  intonation,  which 
emphatically  declares,  this  alone  to  be  the  reason,  and  implies 
by  the  close,  that  no  more  is  to  be  said :  Thus  affording  a  beau- 
tiful instance  both  of  the  grammatical,  and  the  intonated  effect 
of  the  cadence.  Add  to  this,  the  contrasted  variety,  of  the 
rising  intervals  on  the  question,  and  the  downward  intervals  on 
the  answer :  much  preferable,  I  would  say,  for  its  truth,  dignity, 
and  force,  to  the  answer  when  made  by  the  sneering  into- 
nation of  rising  intervals,  or  of  waves,  sometimes  applied  to 
it.  The  next  two  questions,  Hath  not  a  Jew  eyes  ?  Hath  not 
a  Jew  hands  ?  are  similar  in  argumentative  meaning,  and  should 
have  a  like  intonation.  They  are  both  negative.  And  as  the 
negative  question  has  a  peculiar  logical  construction  and  effect, 
I  here  offer  an  explanation  of  that  peculiarity. 

Let  us  take  the  following,  as  a  common  question  ;  Hath  a  Jew 
eyes  ?  Then  as  a  simple  negation  ;  A  Jew  hath  not  eyes  ?  Now 
if  we  join  an  inquiry  to  this  negative  declaration  ;  Is  it,  that  a 
Jew  hath  not  eyes  ?  or  hath  not  a  Jew  eyes  ?  we  question  a 
negative.  But  to  doubt  or  question  a  negative,  is  in  a  certain 
degree,  to  imply  an  affirmative.  Thus  to  question  his  not  having 
eyes,  is  at  least  to  intimate  that  he  has.  Hence  negative  ques- 
tions may  be  considered  as  questions  of  Belief,  under  the  form 
of  an  appeal.  If  this  view  is  correct,  Shylock  does  not  look  to 
Salanio,  his  interlocutor  for  an  answer ;  but  implies  in  the 
negative  appealing  question,  his  conviction  that  the  identical, 
physical  and  moral  constitution  in  the  Jew,  and  the  Christian, 
equally  entitles  the  former  to  the  rights  of  truth  and  justice. 
Under  this  view,  the  question  put  by  Shylock,  though  one  of 
belief,  and  appeal,  has  its  claims  to  the  partial  intonation,  over- 
ruled by  the  vehemence  of  its  spirit ;  and  therefore  demands 
the  thorough  interrogative  expression. 

Next  follow  in  succession,  five  words,  each  being  an  ellip- 
tical declaratory  question ;  and  they  are  here  so  marked ; 
having  dropped  the  grammatical  phrase, — Hath  not   a  Jew  ? 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  223 

These  questions  then,  severally  call  for  the  rising  interrogative 
interval,  on  each  of  their  syllables.  Let  there  be  no  fear  of 
monotony  in  this  case  :  the  variety  of  sound  and  meaning  in  the 
words,  enable  the  ear  to  bear  the  repeated  identity  of  a  truthful 
intonation.  We  next  have  a  sentence  beginning  at  fed,  con- 
sisting of  five  clauses.  This  is  still  a  declaratory  question  : 
but  the  ellipsis  that  makes  it  so,  does  not  avoid  a  solecism ;  for 
the  interrogative  verb,  whether  expressed  or  understood,  must 
be  changed,  and  the  question,  if  complete  should  be,  not.  Hath 
not,  but.  Is  not  a  Jew  fed  with  the  same  food,  as  a  Christian  is  ? 
in  its  declaratory  state  in  the  text,  its  negative  embraces,  like 
the  preceding  questions,  a  degree  of  belief  and  appeal.  But 
the  vehemence  has  somewhat  subsided,  and  the  intonation  may 
therefore  be  partial ;  particularly  at  the  end,  where  the  diatonic 
cadence  may  be  applied.  The  next  four  questions  are  similar  : 
and  each  is  made  up  of  a  condition,  and  of  a  negative  question 
thereon.  If  you  prick  us,  do  we  not  bleed  ?  This  union  of  the 
condition  and  the  negative,  puts  the  question  of  belief  and  of 
appeal,  in  so  strong  a  light,  that  its  meaning  takes  the  lead, 
in  the  intonation  of  the  several  questions.  All  the  interrogative 
})arts  should  therefore  have  the  downward  intervals ;  for  these, 
we  will  learn  hereafter,  form  the  intonation  of  appealing  ques- 
tions :  while  the  conditional  clauses,  should  have  the  partial,  or 
the  thorough  expression,  as  the  meaning,  or  as  variety  may 
require.  The  next  two  ((uestions  are  alike  in  construction,  and 
contain,  severally,  a  condition,  together  with  a  pronominal  ques- 
tion, If  a  Jew  wrong  a  Christian,  what  is  his  humility  ?  Here 
the  interrogator  returning  his  own  answer,  the  question  may  be 
taken  as  an  appeal,  and  thus  receive  the  downward  intonation. 
15 ut  as  the  sentiment  of  the  question  requires  something  of  a 
-aeer,  the  emphatic  syllable  of  humility,  may  receive  the  direct 
wave,  which  will  be  shown  hereafter  to  be  its  proper  vocal 
expression :  while  at  the  same  time,  the  rise  of  the  first  interval 
of  this  wave,  forms  a  striking  and  elegant  contrast  to  the  em- 
phatic downward  intonation  of  the  answer, —  Revenge.  The 
other  answer, —  ivhy  revenge,  should  have  the  triad  of  the 
cadence,  on  its  three  syllables,  forcibly  declared  by  its  downward 


224  THE  INTONATION 

vanishes :  meaning,  as  it  would  seem, —  there  is  an  end  of  the 
subject,  let  no  more  be  said.  As  an  example  for  the  higher 
Elocution,  this  composition  has  great  strength  and  beautj.  The 
vehemence  with  which  the  rising  intonation  begins,  moderates 
as  it  proceeds ;  till  it  gradually  declines  to  the  downward,  but 
still  impressive  intonation  of  an  appeal.  If  the  several  ques- 
tions seem  to  bear  too  close  a  succession  of  the  same  rising 
intervals ;  let  it  be  remembered,  this  is  not  monotony.  It  is 
the  truth  of  intonation :  and  in  the  purposes  of  a  Really  Natu- 
ral and  expressive  use  of  the  voice,  truth  and  fitness  can  never 
be  monotonous,  to  a  scientific,  and  cultivated  ear. 

For  a  further  illustration  of  the  negative  interrogatory,  under 
that  degree  of  belief,  called  the  triumphant  question ;  I  give 
here  an  example,  showing  at  the  same  time,  the  difference 
between  the  negative  and  the  common  form. 

When  Paul,  before  the  Judgment  Seat,  exclaims, —  King 
Agrippa,  believest  thou  the  Prophets  ?  he  addresses  a  real 
inquiry,  and  cannot,  therefore,  with  propriety,  return  the  answer 
himself.  For  unless,  Agrippa  had  remained  silent  after  the 
question,  of  which  we  are  not  informed,  we  see  no  reason  why 
Paul  should  so  confidently  afiirm  the  belief  of  Agrippa.  His 
personal  narrative,  and  his  very  naturally  ascribing  to  Agrippa, 
a  knowledge  of  Jewish  affairs,  even  if  grounds  at  all,  are  not 
implied  in  his  real  inquiry.  But  let  the  question  be  negative, 
and  the  belief  will  then  be  implied,  Paul's  respondent  remark 
might  be  anticipated,  and  would  perhaps  be  fairly  conclusive ; 
Dost  thou  not,  King  Agrippa,  believe  the  Prophets  ?  I  knoiv 
that  thou  believest.  Now  apply  rising  interrogative  intervals  to 
the  words, —  dost  thou  not  King  Agrippa  ;  making  the  three  first 
strongly  and  deliberately  emphatic,  with  a  slight  pause  after 
Agrippa  ;  and  reducing  the  octave  or  fifth,  which  ever  may  be 
used  on  the  sentence,  down  to  a  third  on  the  syllable  grip,  and 
to  a  second  on  pa ;  and  terminating  the  question,  by  positive 
falling  intervals  on, —  believe  the  Prophets  :  and  further,  give 
an  emphatic  downward  intonation  to  the  declaration, -7- 1  know 
that  thou  believest,  with  an  exulting  tremor  on  Tcnoiv ;  and  the 
question,  by  the  implied  belief  of  its  negative  structure,  will  be 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  225 

a  forcible  figure  of  speech,  and  a  striking  example  of  the  triumph- 
ant inquiry.* 

The  extent  of  interrogative  intonation  appropriate  to  ques- 
tions put  argumentativelj,  and  to  those  embracing  a  confident 
appeal,  varies  from  the  full  thorough  application,  through  all 
the  degrees  of  its  partial  use,  to  the  very  opposite  expression  of 
the  most  positive  declaratory  sentence :  But  of  the  argumenta- 
tive, and  appealing  interrogation,  I  shall  speak,  in  a  future 
section. 

When  a  question  is  vehemently  made,  under  any  grammatical 
construction,  and  with  any  number  of  such  questions,  either  in 
■onjunction  or  in  series,  the  rule  very  generally  assigns  to  the 
expression,  the  thorough  extent. 

Show  me  what  thou'lt  do. 
Woo't  weep?  woo't  fight?  woo't  fast?  woo't  tear  thyself? 
Woo't  drink  up  Esil  ?  eat  a  crocodile  ? 
I'll  do't.     Dost  thou  come  here  to  whine? 
To  outface  me  with  leaping  in  her  grave? 

•We  are  told,  in  the  'Acts  of  the  Apostles,'  that  Paul  addressed  Agrippa,  in 
what  we  have  called  a  common  question  of  Real  inquiry.  But  Paul,  from  his 
own  account  of  his  persecuting  the  Christians,  was  a  choleric,  and  a  violent 
man ;  and  was  besides,  an  Enthusiast  in  the  Platonic  Philosophy ;  that  scho- 
lastic source  of  the  fanatical  delusions  of  the  'real  presence  of  Spiritualism,' 
and  of  political  craft,  in  the  prophecies  of  '  Manifest  Destiny.'  Urged  and  sus- 
tained by  the  overbearing  energy,  and  the  self-confidence  of  his  character,  he 
was  necessarily  fearless  before  his  accusers,  and  eloquent  in  the  conscious 
honesty,  and  declaration  of  his  belief.  In  the  fervor  of  that  belief,  he  put  his 
question,  as  if  his  own  conviction  had  reached  his  judge.     Now  either  nature  or 

uvention,  as  I  maintain,  has  appointed  the  form  of  a  Negative  question,  to 
express  this  hopeful  reliance  of  the  interrogator,  on  the  yielding  assent  of  the 
respondent,  But  this  is  not  the  form  recorded  in  the  case  before  us.  If  Paul's 
friends  or  foes  in  the  crowd,  reported  the  Address,  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  a 
mistake.  If  it  was  written  out  by  Paul,  or  repeated  by  him  to  others,  the  senti- 
ment must  then  have  lost  the  purpose  apd  ardor  that  directed  the  meaning,  and 
force,  and  appropriate  grammar  of  his  impressive  vocal  question.  We  may 
then  be  allowed,  with  some  probability,  to  doubt  whether  the  question  was  written 
down  in  the  very  words  of  the  speaker. 

The  philosophical  critic  must  pardon  the  merely  illustrating  fancy  of  this 
Note.  And  if  this,  my  pastime  of  commentary,  should  disturb  the  nervous 
Orthodoxy  of  those  who  do  not  like  to  be  called  '  Lovers  of  Wisdom  ;'  they  will 
please  to  observe,  that  the  proposed  emendation  of  St.  Luke,  who  though  a 
Physician,  may  not  have  been  an  Elocutionist,  is  suggested  by  a  law  of  Nature, 


226  THE  INTONATION 

The  spirit  that  directs  the  voice  in  these  several  questions,  has 
an  excess  of  vehemence,  and  the  purpose  of  that  spirit,  is  inter- 
rogative.      The    interrogative  therefore,  must    be  vehemently 
marked  by  its  rising  intervals  on  every  word,  or  there  will  be 
no  correspondence  between  the  passionate  purpose  and  the  vocal 
expression.     But  it  may  perhaps  be  said,  this  repetition  of  the 
same  interval,  would  be  monotonous.     If  so,  the  charge  is  made 
against  nature ;  and  it  is  always  hopeful  to  defend  her.     Let 
him  who  would  try  it,  for  variety,  give  the  several  questions, 
alternately  with  a  rising  and  a  falling  octave  or  fifth  ;  and  hear 
then,  their  meaning  and  spirit  quite  destroyed,  by  this  see-saw 
of  real    monotony.     Again,  let  him  otherwise  contrast  these 
intervals,  for  some  must  rise,  and  try  every  succession,  that  may 
seem  to  promise  variety ;  then  we  shall  have,  together  with  a 
striking  oddity,  a  far   worse  monotony  of   ajBfectation.     After 
these  trials,  let  him  give   each  question  with  its  proper  rising 
interval :  and  we  can  then  say,  if  the  purpose  and  passion  are 
not  as  deeply  impressed  on  us,  as  they  are  forcibly  expressed  by 
him.     He  is  only  telling  the  truth  of  utterance,  with  emphatic 
repetition ;  and  we,  if  fit  for  sympathy,  cannot  perceive  a  mono- 
tony, which  he   does  not  feel.     But  see  the  elocution,  in  the 
Poet's  soul  and  pen  !     He  put  eight  questions  into  these  lines, 
and  felt  then,  as  we  may  therefore  say  now,  that  all  should  have 
the  rising  intonation.     He  paid  this  tribute  to  nature,  in  the  first 
six.      Then    with  a   mind   unconcious  of  monotony  in   truth, 
but  merely  to  give  it  variety,  by  another  thought  with  the 
downward  interval,  and  its  vehement  assent,  he  felt,  and  thought, 
and  wrote, —  Til  do  it. 

Say,  spirit  of  Shakspeare  !  do  I  thus  speak  the  truth,  of 
thy  discrimination,  as  it  so  often  speaks  to  me  the  everlasting 
truths,  and  truthful  analogies  of  nature  and  of  life  ! 

But  to  return.  Should  a  question  be  addressed  in  a  moderate 
temper  of  inquiry,  the  speaker  will  generally  afiect  the  partial 
form  of  expression.     When  Hamlet  says  to  Guildenstern, 

Will  you  play  upon  this  pipe? 

who  among  the  countless,  so  called,  orthodoxies  of  men,  has  never  yet  found  one, 
in  likeness  of  her  own. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  227 

the  composure  of  mind  and  the  rank  of  the  prince,  mingle  in 
the  question,  the  mild  authority  of  a  request,  with  the  doubt  of 
an  inquiry ;  and  this  is  perhaps  properly  represented  by  the  use 
of  a  moderate  interrogative  intonation  on  the  first  part  of  the 
sentence,  with  a  subsequent  reposing  descent  of  the  diatonic 
cadence.  It  is  true,  the  instrument  is  brought  into  the  scene, 
and  the  question  is  thereupon  put,  with  a  view  to  the  consequent 
quibble ;  and  on  this  ground,  perhaps,  the  word  'pipe  might  be 
regarded  as  emphatic.  Still  the  emphasis  may  be  made  by 
stress  or  force,  on  the  last  constituent  of  the  triad,  as  well  as 
by  a  rising  interrogative  interval. 

When  a  question  is  asked  with  astonishment,  surprise,  indig- 
nation, scorn,  and  other  emotions  of  similar  spirit,  it  generally 
receives  the  thorough  expression.  Let  us  take  an  example 
from  the  scene,  in  the  first  act  of  Samlet,  between  Hamlet, 
Horatio,  and  the  two  officers  ;  where  we  find,  from  the  moment 
Horatio  informs  Hamlet  of  his  having  seen  his  father,  there  fol- 
lows, on  the  part  of  the  Prince,  a  succession  of  questions,  with 
both  the  declaratory  and  interrogative  construction,  requiring 
with  one  or  two  exceptions,  a  marked  use  of  the  thorough 
expression. 

There  are  thirteen  questions  in  this  dialogue.  In  remarking 
on  them,  it  is  to  be  regretted, —  the  nature  and  novelty  of  this 
work  obliges  me  to  anticipate  some  points  of  our  subject,  that 
will  be  fully  explained  hereafter.  Others  gain  knowledge  from 
books  in  their  own  way ;  but,  from  experience,  I  have  found, 
what  is  worth  reading  at  all,  should  be  read  more  than  once ; 
different  parts  of  a  system  being  the  best  expositors  of  each 
other.  The  Student  of  Nature  is  always  again,  and  again, 
going  over  her  Book. 

After  some  words  about  the  late  King,  our  extract  from  the 
dialogue  begins  here : 

Hor.      My  lord,  I  think  I   saw  him  yester-night. 
Ham.     Saw  ?  who  ? 

There  seems  to  be  here,  two  separate  questions.  The  first 
is  elliptical ;  either  for  the  declaratory  phrase,  you  saw  ?  Or 
for  the  common  question,  did  you  see?     And  refers  merely  to 


228  THE  INTONATION 

the  fact  of  an  apparition.  Since  Hamlet's  thought  is,  for  the 
moment,  exclusively  directed  to  the  impossibility  of  the  King 
his  father,  having  been  seen.  The  second  is  elliptical  either  for, 
saw  "who  ?  or  for,  who  did  you  see  ?  And  refers  to  the  person 
of  the  apparition.  By  thus  making  two  separate  questions,  we 
are  enabled  to  give  more  force  and  variety  to  the  intonated  ex- 
pression of  their  sense  and  sentiment.  They  both  express 
astonishment  and  inquiry,  the  former  predominating :  and  this, 
we  shall  learn  hereafter,  calls  for  a  wide  downward  interval ; 
while  the  question  requires  a  wide  rising  interval.  These  differ- 
ent expressions  are  therefore  connected,  by  the  falling  continued 
into  the  rising  octave ;  thus  forming  what  we  call  the  inverted 
wave.  The  astonished  interrogation  of  this  wave,  is  then  to  be 
applied  to  the  first  question,  saw  ?  The  second  question,  who  f 
is  elliptical,  for  —  who  did  you  see  ?  But  it  is  not  here  a  declara- 
tory phrase,  requiring  a  rising  interval ;  for  being  an  interrogative 
pronoun,  it  does  even  when  alone,  always  convey  the  meaning  of 
a  question.  But  the  question  has  already  been  emphatically 
made  on, —  saiv?  With  a  moderate  pause  after  this  word,  the 
astonishment  may  therefore  be  expressed,  by  an  emphatic  down- 
ward octave  on  wlio  ;  forming  what  will  be  described  hereafter, 
as  the  Exclamatory  question.  In  this  way,  the  expression  of 
these  two  words,  while  both  forcible  and  true,  is  effected  with 
more  variety,  than  if  the  same  intonation  were  used  on  each. 

Hot.      My  lord,  the  King,  your  father. 
Ilam.     The  King,  my  father? 

This  is  a  declaratory  question,  with  the  sentiment  of  astonish- 
ment :  and  therefore  calls  for  an  emphatic  thorough  interrogation. 
This  interrogation  may  be  made,  as  in  the  last  case,  by  the 
inverted  wave  of  the  octave  on  King  ;  but  as  the  short  quantity 
of  the  syllable  /a,  will  not  bear  the  prolongation  of  the  wave, 
and  perhaps,  not  even  the  simple  rise  of  an  emphatic  octave, 
without  deforming  its  pronunciation ;  the  interrogative  expres- 
sion might  be  effected,  by  taking — fa,  at  the  current  level  of 
the  voice,  and  then  rising  Avith  ther^  by  an  upward  skip  of 
radical  pitch,  to  the  hight  of  an  octave,  as  exemplified  in  the 
fourteenth  section. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  229 

Horatio  having  then  detailed  the  circumstances  of  the  Ghost's 
visitation,  Hamlet  asks, —  But  where  was  this  ?  What  was  said, 
in  illustrating  the  intonation  of  sentences  constructed  with  the 
adverb  and  pronoun,  applies  here :  for  the  question  is  em- 
phatically put  as  to  the  place ;  where  must  therefore  have  either 
a  simple  interrogative  rise  of  an  octave,  or  fifth,  or  a  union  of 
these  respective  intervals,  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  wave. 

Mar.      My  lord,  upon  the  platform  where  we  watch'd. 
Ham.     Did  you  not  speak  to  it? 

This,  as  the  reader  may  now  perceive,  is  a  Negative  Appeal- 
ing question.  All  therefore  that  was  said  formerly  of  the 
example.  Hath  not  a  Jew  eyes  ?  may  be  referred  to,  and  applied 
liere :  with  the  exception  however,  that  the  present  question  is 
less  vehement,  and  therefore  less  confident  in  its  belief  and  ap- 
peal, and  in  the  expectation  of  an  according  answer.  The 
greater  energy  in  the  former  case,  required  the  thorough  in- 
terrogation :  while  here,  the  application  may  be  either  thorough 
or  partial,  as  the  thought  or  feeling  of  the  reader  may  direct. 
If  however,  as  it  appears  to  me,  there  is  in  the  idea  that  Horatio 
should,  yet  might  not  have  spoken  to  it,  some  passing  sentiment 
of  reproof  on  the  part  of  Hamlet,  the  intonation  should  be  partial, 
to  show  that  reproof,  perhaps  on  the  word  not,  by  a  positive 
downward  interval. 

Hor.     My  lord  I  did;  but  answer  made  it  none. 
Ham.    'Tis  very  strange. 

Hor.     As  I  do  live,  my  honored  lord,  'tis  true. 
Ham.    Indeed,  indeed  sirs,  but  this  troubles  me. 
Hold  you  the  watch,  to  night? 

This  is  a  question  of  real  inquiry,  and  should  have  the  thorough 
intonation.  But  there  may  be  another  cause  for  this.  Think- 
ing men,  in  their  purposes,  whether  good  or  bad, —  if  indeed, 
that  exalted  agent  real  thinking  ever  stoops,  as  fictional  though 
often  does,  to  a  bad  purpose, —  always  have  a  reason  for  them. 
When  therefore,  Shakspeare  makes  the  whole  company  at  once, 
answer  this  question,  we  must  not  suppose  it  done  without 
thought,  but  to  show,  the  question  was  not  addressed  to  you,  as 


230  THE  INTONATION 

an  individual.  Consequently,  the  interrogative  expression  should 
be  thrown  over  the  Avhole  sentence,  with  a  slight  emphasis  on, 
to  niglit :  the  time  being  the  unknown,  while  holding  the  watch, 
and  the  sentinels  to  be  set,  are  the  given  quantities,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  mind  of  Hamlet. 

All.        We  do,  my  lord. 
Ilam.     Arm'd,  say  you? 

This  is  not  a  question  of  real  inquiry.  For  Horatio  having 
formerly  described  the  king,  'arm'd  at  point,  exactly,  cap-a-p^,' 
Hamlet  was  aware  of  his  having  so  appeared.  But  as  happens, 
in  cases  where  the  mind  is  unprepared  for  a  new  impression,  and 
hardly  receives  it,  Hamlet  recurs,  by  the  phrase,  say  you,  to 
the  former  report  by  Horatio,  and  asks  for  a  confirmation  of  it. 
This  then  being  a  question  of  belief,  might  seem  to  call  for  only 
the  partial  intonation.  Yet  as  the  thought  comes  back  to 
Hamlet,  with  some  surprise ;  as  an  earnest  feeling  is  implied  in 
the  desire  to  have  the  sentiment  repeated ;  and  as  there  are  but 
three  words  in  the  question,  and  those,  important  to  the  point, 
each  should  receive  the  interrogative  expression. 

Uor.      Arm'd,  my  lord. 
Uam.     From  top  to  toe? 

This  is  a  declaratory  question,  and  requires  the  thorough 
interrogation. 

Ilor.      My  lord,  from  head  to  foot. 
Uam.     Then  saw  you  not  his  face  ? 

This  is  a  negative  question,  and  thus  carries  a  degree  of  be- 
lief; yet  as  the  spirit  is  earnest;  as  the  last  word  is  emphatic, 
and  thus  requires  an  interrogative  interval,  the  whole  question 
calls  for  the  thorough  expression. 

Uor.      0,  yes,  my  lord;  he  wore  his  beaver  up. 
Uam.     What !   Look'd  he  frowningly  ? 

It  is  not  quite  clear  to  me,  what  should  be  the  intonation,  on 
the  first  part  of  this  question.  I  am  inclined  to  take  what^  as 
an  exclamation  rather  than  an  interrogative.     In  each  case  it 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  231 

must  be  considered  an  ellipsis :  in'the  former,  perhaps  for,  what 
a  wonder ;  in  the  latter  for,  ivhat  was  his  appearance.  As  a 
pronominal  interrogatory,  it  requires  a  "wide  rising  interval ; 
while  the  following  phrase,  looked  he  frowningly,  being  a  ques- 
tion of  real  inquiry,  with  the  thorough  expression,  we  have 
unnecessarily,  and  with  seeming  levity  of  voice,  two  consecutive 
interrogations.  In  the  other  case,  taking  the  pronoun  as  an 
elliptical  exclamation,  with  a  downward  fifth  or  octave,  and  a 
subsequent  pause,  the  gravity  of  this  wider  interval  would  con- 
trast agreeably  with  the  thorough  rising  interrogation,  and  give 
greater  dignity  to  the  whole  expression. 

Ilor.      A  countenance  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger. 
Ilam.     Pale,  or  red? 

This  is  a  declaratory  elliptical  question,  and  should  receive  a 
thorough  expression.  But  perhaps  we  may  find  an  overruling 
reason  Avhy  it  should  take  the  partial.  As  these  words  make  an 
emphatic  contradistinction,  and  as  intonation  is  the  sign  of  sense 
and  sentiment ;  that  contradistinction  must  be  shown  by  the 
intonation.  We  would  then  give  to  pale,  a  rising  interrTfga- 
tive  interval ;  and  to  red,  a  downward  positive  intonation. 
Were  the  quantity  of  this  last  word  greater,  it  might  receive, 
with  more  propriety,  the  direct  wave  ;  its  first  or  rising  interval, 
moderating  by  its  interrogative  effect,  the  positiveness  of  its 
downward  termination.  But,  even  with  the  single  intervals 
above  proposed,  the  question,  is  marked,  and  the  words  contra- 
distinguished, by  an  emphatic  and  varied  expression.  This 
example  forms  one  of  the  exceptions  to  the  very  general  rule, 
that  declarative  questions  should  receive  the  thorough  interro- 
gative expression. 

Hor.      Nay,  very  pale. 

llam.     And  fixed  his  eyes  on  you? 

This  is  a  declarative  sentence,  and  requires  the  interrogative 
intervals  throughout. 

Hor.  Most  constantly. 

Ham.  I  would  I  had  been  there. 

Hor.  It  would  have  much  amazed  you. 

Ham  Very  like,  very  like.     Staid  it  long  ? 


232  THE  INTONATION 

The  three  last  words,  are  here  the  question ;  and  containing 
a  real  inquiry,  call  for  the  thorough  expression. 

Ilor.      While  one  with  moderate  haste  might  tell  a  hundred. 

Mar.    Ber.  Longer,  longer. 

Hor.      Not  when  I  saw  it. 

Ham.     His  beard  was  grizzl'd  ?     No  ? 

Hor.      It  was,  as  I  have  seen  it  in  his  life,  a  sable  silvered. 

There  seems  to  be  some  difficulty  in  this  last  question.  If 
the  phraseology  were  completed  thus :  His  beard  was  grizzl'd, 
was  it  not  ?  the  case  would  be  quite  clear.  For  taking  the  first 
phrase,  under  this  form,  as  a  declaratory  question,  it  would 
receive  a  thorough  interrogative  intonation  :  while  the  second  — 
being  a  proper  grammatical  question,  with  its  rising  interval, 
and  following  the  first, —  would  have  the  propriety  and  force  of 
an  emphatic  repetition  of  the  question,  under  a  negative  and 
appealing  form.  But  when,  as  in  the  dialogue,  the  construction 
of  the  last  phrase,  is  reduced  by  ellipsis,  to  the  monosyllable  no, 
an(i  both  the  phrases  are  then  made  intonated  questions,  it  ren- 
ders, in  some  .degree,  the  elocution  awkward,  and  the  meaning 
obscure.  Every  edition  of  Shakspeare,  I  have  examined,  makes 
each  of  these  phrases,  a  separate  interrogation.  As  they  stand 
then  in  the  dialogue,  the  first  is  a  declarative,  question,  and 
must  have  the  rising  interval  on  every  word :  while  no,  being 
^also  a  declarative  question,  must  likewise  have  its  rising  interval. 
The  question  having,  however,  been  distinctly  expressed  by  the 
first  phrase,  an  endeavor  to  enforce  it  by  repetition,  under  this 
brief  monosyllabic  construction,  would  Droduce  only  an  inef- 
fectual kind  of  vocal  tautology.  For  a  single  interrogative  interval 
on  no,  does  not  here,  give  that  double  impression  of  the  ques- 
tion, which  is  eflfected,  by  the  same  interrogative  intonation, 
on  the  above  proposed  and  full  grammatical  question,  was  it 
not  ?  If  the  reader  will  give  a  thorough  expression,  to  these 
two  different  forms  of  the  sentence,  Ilis  beard  was  grizzl'd  ?  no  ? 
and.  His  beard  was  grizzl'd  ?  was  it  not  ?  he  will  perceive,  that 
in  the  latter,  the  inquiry  is  clearly  enforced,  by  its  repetition 
under  the   different  form  of  a   negative   appeal :  while  in  the 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  233 

former,  there  is  a  degree  of  confusion  in  the  sense,  and  conse- 
quently an  undetermined  character  in  the  elocution.  For  in  this 
case,  it  might  seem,  without  due  reflection,  that  Hamlet  having 
first  inquired  whether  the  beard  was  grizzled,  immediately  an- 
swers his  own  question,  by  a  declaration  that  it  was  not.  But 
taking  this  single  word,  according  to  the  text,  as  a  question, 
even  a  wide  interrogative  interval  on  wo,  has  not  the  power  to 
destroy  entirely,  the  usual,  and  strongly  declarative  meaning  of 
this  negative  monosyllable.  And  this  produces,  a  confusion, 
which  the  full  grammatical  question,  was  it  not,  would  entirely 
obviate. 

There  is  another  view  to  be  taken  of  this  example  :  for  Elocu- 
tion is  a  current  of  divided  and  sometijnes  diverging  rills-.  Thus 
the  phrase,  his  beard  was  grizzl'd,  may  be  taken  as  a  positive 
affirmation,  founded  on  Hamlet's  certain  knowledge  of  its  living 
color ;  and  made  as  additional  means  for  identifying  his  father. 
In  this  case,  it  should  have  the  downward  intonation  of  a 
common  assertion.  The  phrase  being  so  regarded,  Hamlet 
seems,  for  a  moment,  to  question  his  own  conviction :  and  there- 
upon, by  the  declaratory  question,  no, —  an  ellipsis  here,  for,  was 
it  not  grizzl'd, —  asks  Horatio,  by  a  rising  fifth  or  octave,  on 
this  negative  monosyllable,  if  it  was  not  so.  My  own  ear  and 
reflection  incline  me  to  this  manner  of  treating  the  example. 
But  the  two  parts  of  the  sentence,  being  universally  marked  as 
real  and  separate  questions,  I  did,  on  that  condition,  propose 
for  them,  what  seemed  to  me  a  suitable  intonation. 

To  the  scientific  and  practical  Artist-Reader  of  another 
age,  skilled  in  the  principles,  and  if  we  may  so  speak,  in  the 
design,  light  and  shade,  color,  and  perspective,  of  Elocution,  we 
may  predict,  that  without  some  further  discernment  in  his  day, 
the  structure  of  this  sentence  will  never  allow  a  quite  satisfac- 
tory intonation.  As  however,  Hamlet  must  speak  from  some 
recollected  knowledge,  I  would  propose,  according  to  the  manner 
just  described,  to  make  the  first  clause  a  simple  assertion,  with 
a  downward  intonation ;  and  no,  with  a  wide  interrogative 
interval.  Yet  this,  from  the  influence  of  the  usual  assertive 
meaning  of  no,  does  not  satisfy  me ;  and  perhaps  it  is  only  a  poor 
16 


234  THE  INTONATION 

apology  for  my  own  inability,  to  say,  the  sentence  should  never 
have  been  written,  to  be  read,  and  that  here,  Shakspeare,  the 
Actor,  slept. 

I  have  said  little  of  the  emphatic  words,  and  of  other  points 
in  these  questions ;  and  have  only  occasionally  noted  the  extent 
of  the  intervals :  the  purpose  being  to  describe  some  of  the 
forms  of  partial  and  thorough  interrogation,  and  the  general 
character  of  their  expression.  Among  the  purposes  of  this  work, 
the  title  page  announces,  its  design  to  render  criticism  intel- 
ligible, through  the  study,  and  promulgation  of  its  system  and 
principles.  I  have  therefore  endeavored  to  show,  by  the  pre- 
ceding explanatory  criticisms,  how  some  of  these  principles  may 
be  applied :  leaving  others,  with  competent  knowledge,  and  an 
observant  spirit,  to  make  particular  applications  for  themselves. 
Personal  Authority  has  always  laid  such  a  stupefying  weight,  on 
the  human  mind,  that  it  is  hoped  this  book  may  be  consulted, 
only  for  those  submitted  principles  which  observation,  experi- 
ment, and  well-watched  thinking,  may  hereafter  confirm ;  and 
not  for  suggestions,  or  critical  opinions  recorded  by  the  author, 
merely  to  illustrate  the  meaning  of  his  subject ;  an  illustration 
being  often,  no  more  than  an  analogy  to  the  sense  of  a  pro- 
position, not  an  examplary  proof  of  it. 

Under  the  present  head,  for  illustrating  the  influence  of 
forcible  sentiments,  in  producing  a  thorough  intonation,  we  have 
another  instance  in  the  retort  of  Cleopatra,  to  Proculeius,  the 
friend  of  Caesar. 

Know,  sir,  that  I 
Will  not  wait  pinioned  at  your  master's  court; 
Nor  once  be  chastised  with  the  sober  eye 
Of  dull  Octavia.     Shall  they  hoist  me  up, 
And  thow  me  to  the  shouting  varletry 
Of  censuring  Rome?  Rather  a  ditch  in  ^Egypt 
Be  gentle  grave  unto  me. 

The  repulsive  indignation  of  this  question  cannot  be  fairly 
painted,  without  the  fullest  measure  of  interrogative  coloring. 
As  there  seems,  however,  to  be  some  implied  appeal,  in  the 
word,  sliall,  it  might  be  supposed,  the  question  is  one  for  partial 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  235 

intonation.     But  under  this,  or  any  other  exceptive  condition, 
the  earnestness  of  the  sentiment  -vvould  overrule  it. 

When  the  last  syllable  of  a  question  is  emphatic,  and  its 
intonation  not  directed  to  the  partial  expression  by  the  preceding 
rules,  particularly  that,  regarding  the  series,  this  last  syllable 
bears  the  interrogative  interval.  Should  the  sentence  be  short, 
or  consist  of  a  single  member,  the  expression  ■will  have  a 
thorough  application.  In  the  dialogue  between  the  murderers 
of  Clarence,  the  second  speaker  exclaims  and  asks : 

AVhatj  shall  we  stab  him  as  he  sleeps? 

From  the  answer  of  his  companion  it  is  plain,  the  question 
points  at  the  act  of  sleeping,  and  this  produces  an  interrogative 
emphasis  on  the  last  word.  Had  the  incjuiry  been  whether  the 
victim  should  be  stabbed  or  strangled,  the  word  stah  would 
carry  the  emphatic  intonation,  and  the  sentence  might  end  with 
the  diatonic  cadence. 

It  will  be  shown,  in  a  future  section  on  Exclamatory  sentences, 
that  a  phrase  having  the  grammatical  form  of  a  question, —  but 
from  some  collateral  influence,  imbued  with  sentiments  that 
overrule  the  interrogative  purpose, —  is  not  properly  expressed 
by  rising  intervals,  but  by  a  contrary  movement  of  pitch. 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  bring  the  subject  of  thorough  and 
partial  interrogative  intonation,  into  something  like  a  managea- 
ble form,  I  leave  the  correction  of  the  errors  of  the  effort,  and 
the  amplifying  of  its  approved  hints,  as  a  work  for  the  better 
ear,  and  closer  attention  of  others. 

Let  us  now  consider  more  particularly,  the  manner  of  employ- 
ing the  interrogative  intervals  on  individual  syllables. 

Prefatory  to  this  investigation,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the 
radical  and  vanishing  movement,  when  applied  to  short  and  im- 
mutable syllables.  In  the  second  section  I  described  the  means 
by  which  the  various  concretes  may  be  exemplified  on  long  quan- 
tities :  and  there  asserted  that  no  syllable  however  short,  can  be 
uftered  without  passing  through  the  radical  and  vanish,  under 
some  form  of  intonation.  Perhaps  the  reader  is  now  prepared 
to  receive  proof,  that  the  concrete  does  pass  through  the  wider 
intervals,  or  immutable  syllables. 


236  THE  INTONATION 

We  will  then  suppose,  he  is  familiar  with  the  interrogative 
expression  of  a  concrete  rise  through  a  third,  fifth,  and  octave. 
Now  let  him  take  the  immutahle  syllable  top,  one  of  the  shortest 
in  the  language,  and  pronounce  it  as  a  mere  sound,  without 
meaning  or  sentiment :  and  again,  as  an  earnest  question.  He 
will  perceive,  that  however  quickly  pronounced,  it  will  still  have 
the  peculiar  interrogative  expression.  There  is  therefore  in  the 
last  experiment,  some  condition  of  the  voice  not  heard  in  the 
first.  Since  then,  this  interrogative  expression,  on  the  slow  and 
measurable  time  of  an  indefinite  syllable,  is  made  by  the  wider 
interval  of  the  fifth  or  octave ;  and  as  there  is  no  other  means 
for  producing  this  interrogative  eifect,  the  inference  is  fair,  that 
the  voice  in  producing  that  same  efi"ect  on  a  short  syllable,  must 
have  passed  through  one  of  those  wider  intervals.  For  it  does 
not  in  this  case,  proceed  from  any  peculiar  quality  of  voice ;  nor 
from  an  impressive  degree  of  force :  and  that  it  is  not  pro- 
duced solely  by  a  radical  skip  of  the  syllable  to  a  high  place  of 
pitch,  may  be  ascertained  by  the  following  experiment.  Let 
the  reader,  rise  through  the  musical  scale  by  repeating  the  word 
top,  taking  care  to  give  it  no  more  than  the  concrete  of  a  second 
at  each  degree :  yet  with  this  discrete  rise  to  any  hight,  there 
will  be  no  interrogative  effect.  To  what  then  is  this  interroga- 
tive  intonation,  on  an  immutable  syllable  to  be  ascribed,  if  not 
to  a  momentary  flight  of  the  voice,  through  a  concrete  interroga- 
tive interval.  The  audible  efi"ect  justifies  the  conclusion  ;  though 
the  increments  of  time,  and  of  space  on  the  scale,  so  distinctly 
perceptible  in  the  slower  concrete,  are  on  the  immutable  syllable, 
altogether  beyond  the  power  of  measurement. 

From  this  view  of  the  diflference  in  time  of  the  radical  and 
vanish,  on  indefinite,  and  on  immutable  syllables ;  and  with 
reference  to  the  uses  of  their  difi'erent  times  in  the  intonation  of  in- 
terrogative sentences ;  let  us  call  the  measurable  movement  of  the 
voice  through  an  indefinite  syllable,  the  Slow  Concrete:  and 
its  momentary  flight  through  a  short  and  an  immutable  one,  the 
Rapid  Concrete. 

It  appears  by  the  trials  above  proposed,  that  the  interrogative 
efi'ect  is  producible  on  the  shortest  syllables  :  and  similar  experi- 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  237 

ments  warrant  the  general  conclusion,  that  every  interval  of  the 
scale  is  practicable  on  every  syllable  of  speech.  But  it  is  to  be 
remarked,  that  the  effect  of  the  wider  intervals  or  short  sylla- 
bles, compared  with  their  effect  on  long  and  indefinite  ones,  has 
a  feebleness  of  interrogative  expression,  directly  proportional  to 
the  rapidity  of  their  flight ;  and  consequently,  that  the  slow  and 
distinctly  measurable  concrete  on  indefinite  syllables  produces  a 
more  marked  impression  on  the  ear.  It  is  desirable,  however  that 
the  thorough  expression  should  be  equally  diffused  throughout 
the  sentence :  and  as  all  syllables  have  not  sufiicient  length,  to 
bear  the  slow  and  most  impressive  interrogative  concrete,  it 
follows  that  other  means,  besides  those  already  described,  must 
be  employed  on  short  syllables,  for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling 
strongly  and  uniformly  the  intonation  of  a  question.  The 
means  for  strengthening  the  comparative  feebleness  of  interroga- 
tive expression  on  short  syllables,  consists  in  raising  them,  by 
change  of  radical  pitch,  through  the  interrogative  interval,  to 
the  summit  of  the  slow  concretes  on  the  indefinite  quantities ; 
as  the  following  notation  of  a  case  of  thorough  expression  will 
exemplify. 

Give      Bru tus      a     stat ue    with      his    an ces tors? 


^^E^^E^^f- 


4^4  g 


In  this  case  the  interrogative  intonation  is  made  by  the  fifth 
on  every  syllable.  To  the  first  two  Avhich  are  indefinite  and 
emphatic,  the  slow  concrete  is  applied.  But  the  third  being 
immutable,  cannot  bear  the  slow  concrete ;  the  pitch  is  therefore 
suddenly  transferred  by  radical  change  to  the  hight  of  the 
preceding  vanish ;  where,  at  the  same  moment,  the  syllable 
takes  on  the  rapid  concrete  of  the  fifth.  The  melody  continues 
at  this  hight,  on  all  the  following  unemphatic  syllables,  or  which, 
if  emphatic  as  may  be  said  of  stat.,  are  of  immutable  quantity. 
From  A?.s,  the  radical  pitch  descends  to  the  indefinite  syllable 


238  THE  INTONATION 

an,  for  the  purpose  of  rising  on  this  syllable  by  the  slow  con- 
crete :  and  the  two  final  short  quantities  terminate  the  melody  by 
radical  change  and  the  rapid  concrete. 

It  is  by  this  method  then,  the  union  of  a  radical  change  with 
the  rapid  concrete,  that  a  full  and  forcible  power  of  interrogative 
intonation  is  given  to  those  syllables,  which  are  too  short  to 
admit  of  the  slower  and  more  measurable  movement. 

The  reader  may  satisfy  himself  of  the  nature  and  effect  of 
this  radical  change,  by  deliberately  pronouncing  the  noun  con- 
vict, as  an  earnest  question.  The  syllable  con  being  an  indefinite 
quantity,  and  emphatic,  will  be  distinctly  heard  to  rise  con- 
cretely from  a  given  point  of  pitch,  to  the  place  of  the  fifth  or 
octave,  according  to  the  earnestness  of  the  expression :  and  the 
immutable  syllable  vict,  with  its  rapid  concrete,  will  be  heard  at 
the  hight  of  that  previous  vanisL  "When  vict  is  kept  down  at 
the  level  of  the  radical  of  con,  and  there  uttered  with  a  rapid 
concrete  rise,  carefully  guarding  against  the  descent  to  a  close, 
the  interrogative  eifect  is  indeed  still  perceptible,  but  in  a 
degree  far  inferior  to  the  keen  questioning  of  the  former  into- 
nation. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  assign  the  reason  why  the  interrogative 
effect  of  the  rapid  concrete  is  enhanced,  by  its  being  taken  on 
the  higher  places  of  the  scale.  For  the  rise  by  the  slow  con- 
crete, is  after  all,  but  a  gradual  change  from  a  low  to  a  high 
pitch :  and  though  that  gradual,  or  continuous  change  is  plainly 
distinguishable,  in  its  degree  of  expression,  from  a  discrete  skip  to 
the  same  hight,  still  an  essential  though  not  the  exclusive  power  of 
the  gradual  movement,  is,  its  designating  that  higher  place  by  its 
termination  there.  Now  this  power  is  the  sole  efficient  in  the 
radical  skip ;  and  like  that  |0f  two  discrete  notes  on  a  musical 
instrument,  when  heard  in  immediate  succession  as  the  ex- 
tremes of  a  wide  interval  of  the  scale,  it  does  produce  an 
effect  closely  resembling  that  arising  from  a  concrete  transition 
of  sound  between  the  same  extremes.  When  to  this  effect  of 
the  radical  change,  the  co-operating  expression  of  the  rapid 
concrete  is  added,  the  combined  effects  become  equivalent  to  the 
interrogative  expression,  produced  by  the  slow  concrete  on  an 
indefinite  syllable. 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  239 

As  the  rapid  concrete  on  a  short  syllable,  whether  emphatic 
or  not,  docs,  however  moderately,  produce  an  interrogative 
expression,  it  may  be  used,  without  the  radical  change  in  cases 
not  requiring  a  strongly  marked  intonation  of  the  question. 
That  is,  all  the  interrogative  syllables  of  sentences,  bearing  the 
partial  expression,  for  a  thorough  expression  is  generally  forci- 
ble, may  be  kept  at  about  the  same  line  of  radical  pitch.  But 
the  syllables  so  disposed,  must  still  perform  their  rapid  concrete 
in  the  appropriate  interrogative  interval :  and  it  will  generally 
be  found,  that  the  moderate  temper  of  such  questions  receives 
the  abated  expression,  ascribed  to  the  Third,  in  the  history  of 
that  interval. 

Besides  that  succession  of  radical  change  above  noted  and 
explained,  there  is  another  method  of  applying  the  general 
principle  of  its  construction.  When  the  first  part  of  a  sentence 
consists  of  short  quantities,  that  do  not  bear  extension,  the 
interrogative  expression  may  be  made,  by  the  voice  setting  out 
:it  once  with  a  rapid  concrete,  on  the  high  pitch,  and  descending 
afterwards  at  the  first  emphatic  syllable  of  long  quantity.  Thus, 
taking  the  two  first  symbols  of  intonation  from  -the  preceding 
example,  and  setting  over  the  remaining  notation,  the  following 
phrase,  as  an  earnest  question, 

Pitt  a  statue  -with  his  ancestors? 

it  will  have  the  just  interrogative  expression. 

Perhaps  the  reader  is  now  prepared  to  understand  this  general 
statement :  That  the  current  melody  of  interrogation,  in  sen- 
tences requiring  the  Thorough  expression,  is  made  by  the  slow 
concrete  interval  of  the  third  or  fifth  or  octave,  on  long  and 
emphatic  syllables ;  and  by  a  change  of  radical  pitch,  together 
with  the  rapid  concrete,  on  the  short  and  unemphatic,  and  the 
unaccented :  that  in  sentences,  restricted  to  the  Partial  expres- 
sion, the  intonation  is  made  by  a  similar  use  of  the  above  named 
interrogative  intervals,  in  connection  with  the  phrases  of  the 
common  diatonic  melody :  and  that  in  each  separate  case  of 
a  Thorough,  or  a  Partial  expression,  the  interrogation  may,  in 
the  same  sentence,  be  formed  solely  by  the  Third,  or  Fifth,  or 
Octave ;  or  more  than  one  of  these  intervals  may  be  used  in  the 


240  THE  INTONATION 

same  sentence ;  accordingly  as  the  emphatic  force  and  the  senti- 
ment of  the  several  words  require,  on  the  one  hand,  the  same  ex- 
pression, and  on  the  other,  an  appropriation  of  the  peculiar  pow- 
ers of  the  different  intervals  to  the  varying  demands  of  those 
words. 

Let  us  now  learn  the  means  for  constructing  the  cadence  of 
interogative  sentences :  or,  as  most  of  these  sentences  have  not 
the  peculiar  close,  or  descent,  of  the  cadence  strictly  so  called, 
let  us  to  speak  more  precisely,  learn  the  manner  of  intonation  on 
their  three  final  syllables. 

"When  a  sentence  has  the  Thorough  expression,  the  close  is 
made  in  one  of  the  following  ways.  And  let  the  reader  bear  in 
mind,  that  when  applied  to  interrogative  sentences,  the  terms 
slow  and  rapid  concrete,  mean  always,  the  rise  of  the  interval. 

If  the.  last  three  syllables  are  un emphatic,  or  immutable  if  em- 
phatic, or  are  the  unaccented  syllables  of  an  emphatic  word,  the 
interrogative  effect  is  produced  by  a  radical  change,  and  a  rapid 
concrete  of  these  three  final  syllables :  these  syllables  at  their 
elevated  pitch,  being  carried  on  in  the  phrase  of  the  monotone  or 
rising  ditone. "  For  since  the  interrogative  expression  always 
gives  an  idea  of  a  continuation  of  the  voice,  as  contradistinguished 
from  the  close  of  the  Triad ;  the  above  named  plu-ases  do  add 
their  peculiar  character  to  that  of  the  rapid  concrete,  and  thus 
effect  the  required  continuation,  at  the  end  of  the  sentence.  This 
species  of  close  is  here  exemplified. 

lie         said         you  -were  in com pa — ra ble? 


I 


n  ,  i~i^=T^^ 


£e^^ 


The  same  case  of  thorough  expression  being  supposed  :  if  the 
antepenult  syllable  is  emphatic,  and  of  indefinite  quantity,  it  as- 
sumes the  slow  concrete,  and  the  last  two  take  on  the  radical 
change  and  the  rapid  concrete ;  shown  by  the  notation  of  the 
word  ancestors  in  a  preceding  example. 

In  a  like  case,  when  the  penult  is  a  long  quantity,  it  will  rise 
by  the  slow  concrete  ;  and  tlic  last  will  have  the  rapid  concrete 
with  the  radical  change.     This  form  of  intonation  may  be  well 


OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES.  241 

understood  witliout  a  diagram  ;  and  from  what  has  heen  already 
shown,  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  give  an  illustration  by  the  staff, 
to  all  the  succeeding  descriptions  within  the  present  subject. 

If  the  last  syllable  of  a  sentence,  requiring  the  thorough  ex- 
pression, be  emphatic  and  capable  of  bearing  the  slow  concrete, 
it  will  assume  that  form  of  intonation.  Under  this  condition, 
the  radical  pitch  of  the  three  syllables  may  go  through  the  down- 
ward tritone,  as  here  shown. 

Give        Fab ius        a        tri umph      for      his     de — lay? 


T—TTl- 


i 


P^ 


In  such  instances  the  concrete  rise  of  the  octave,  fifth,  or  third, 
as  the  case  may  be,  will  create  a  perception  of  continuity,  and 
thus  counteract  the  tendency  of  the  radical  descent,  through 
three  successive  tones,  to  produce  a  close  :  for  it  is  a  condition  of 
the  terminative  cadence,  that  the  vanish  of  its  last  syllable 
should  be  in  a  downward  direction. 

When  the  expression  is  Partial,  and  the  last  clause  of  the  sen- 
tence does  not  require  the  interrogative  intervals,  the  melody  of 
that  clause  must  be  of  the  common  diatonic  species,  and  should 
therefore  terminate  with  the  appropriate  triad.  But  sentences 
with  the  partial  expression  sometimes  have  one  of  the  three  syl- 
lables emphatic,  and  thus  require  the  interrogative  expression. 
Under  this  condition  the  following  will  be  the  forms  of  the  ca- 
dence. 

When  the  antepenult  syllable  is  emphatic,  and  of  indefinite 
quantity,  it  will  take  the  slow  interrogative  interval :  and  the  last 
two  will  successively  descend  from  the  point  below  the  radical  of 
that  concrete,  and  form  with  it,  a  proper  diatonic  triad. 

Should  the  penult  be  emphatic,  and  bear  the  slow  concrete, 
the  last  syllable  will  have  its  radical  pitch  a  tone  below  that  of 
the  preceding,  and  by  its  downward  vanish  will  produce  the 
close  of  the  triad;  the  emphatic  syllable  with  its  interrogative 
intonation,  being  in  radical  pitch,  a  tone  below  the  antepenult. 
This  construction  however,  is  not  common :  for  if  the  emphatic 


242  OF  INTERROGATIVE  SENTENCES. 

interrogative  expression  on  the  concrete  interval  comes  so  near 
the  close,  it  is  frenerally  continued,  by  the  last  syllable  rising 
with  the  radical  change. 

When  the  final  syllable  is .  emphatic,  and  of  indefinite  time, 
the  cadence  is  made  like  that  of  the  last  diagram,  in  the  pre- 
ceding account  of  thorough  expression. 

The  history  here  given  of  interrogative  intonation,  embraces 
a  few  leading  points  of  its  purposes  and  efi'ects.  The  subject 
oiFers  some  interesting  views  on  the  philosophy  of  the  human 
mind,  as  well  as  that  of  speech.  It  shows  how  far,  the  demands 
of  thought  outrun  the  significant  powers  of  the  voice ;  how 
counter-currents  of  expression  meet  without  confusion,  and  how 
varied  sentiments,  under  the  same  forms  of  intonation,  are  con- 
tradistinguished by  the  conventional  specifications  of  language. 
I  leave  the  discovery,  and  better  arrangement,  of  other  phe- 
nomena, and  the  exhibition  of  reason  and  rule  of  their  variety, 
for  the  observation  of  others.  Upon  some  future  extension  of 
the  principles  of  this  essay,  to  the  universal  practice  of  speech, 
the  subject  of  interrogative  intonation  will  form  a  full  chapter 
of  methodic  detail.  I  see,  perhaps  dimly,  some  of  its  abundant 
and  unsorted  materials  ;  but  have  not  time,  if  even  the  ability,  to 
light-up,  to  gather-in,  to  disentangle,  to  specify,  combine,  and  com- 
plete. "What  is  here  done,  may  seem  to  be  too  much. .  For  the  pre- 
sent age,  I  believe  it  is.  But  this  is  a  concession  altogether  foreign 
to  the  progress  of  knowledge,  and  to  the  pleasure  we  derive 
from  its  development.  A  history  of  the  desirable  and  welcome 
truths  of  Nature,  in  the  dignified  confidence  of  even  its  humble 
contributions,  no  more  asks  the  favor  and  applause  of  those  who 
read,  than  Nature  herself  asks  the  gratitude  and  worship  of 
those  who  enjoy  her  bounties.  She  gives  what  she  gives,  for 
her  own  purposes,  without  distracting  her  self-energized  dispen- 
sations, by  the  subordinate  schemes  of  ambitious  expectation. 
A  record  of  her  admirable  things  should  be,  in  all,  the  image 
of  her ;  and  perhaps  he  would  both  do  and  enjoy  more,  in  the 
work  of  discovering  and  describing  her,  who  could  catch  a  por- 
tion of  the  unostentatious  spirit  with  which  she  bestows,  and  who 
could  put  on  some  of  her  indifierence,  to  the,  too  often,  thought- 
less praise  or  blame  of  those  who  receive. 


THE  RISING  SECOND.  243 


SECTION  XVIII. 

Of  the  Interval  of  tlie  Rising  Second. 

We  return  from  the  foregoing  account  of  the  use  of  the  "wider 
intervals  of  pitch,  in  the  construction  of  interrogative  melody, 
to  the  enumeration  and  description  of  other  intervals  of  more 
limited  extent,  but  of  no  less  essential  eflficacy  in  the  scale  of 
intonation. 

The  rising  interval  of  the  second,  or  the  rising  radical  and 
vanishing  tone,  has  in  previous  parts  of  this  essay  been  atten- 
tively considered,  both  as  regards  its  nature  and  its  position  in 
speech.  In  continuing  our  orderly  notice  of  all  the  intervals  of 
the  scale,  "sve  here  resume  the  subject  of  this  Second,  with  some 
further  remarks  on  its  important  uses.  It  is  the  basis  of  the 
diatonic  melody ;  and  in  correct  and  agreeable  elocution,  is  more 
frequently  used  than  any  other  interval :  since  it  is  appropriate 
to  those  parts  of  discourse  -which  convey  the  plain  thoughts 
of  the  speaker ;  as  contradistinguished  from  the  feelings  and 
emphatic  sentiments,  that  call  for  wider  intervals,  and  other 
signs  of  Expression.  Although  the  Tone,  in  its  simplest  state, 
is  thus  excluded  from  among  the  especial  agents  of  expression, 
■we  shall  learn  hereafter,  it  may  be  made  impressive  by  stress  on 
different  parts  of  its  concrete ;  and  that  an  extension  of  the 
voice  into  the  wave  of  this  interval,  gives  groat  dignity,  to  the 
diatonic  melody,  without  destroying  the  plain  and  unobtrusive 
character  of  its  intonation. 

The  radical  and  vanish  is  a  necessary  function  of  utterance ; 
or  in  other  words,  no  syllabic  impulse  can  be  made  without  its 
passing  through  some  one  form  of  the  concrete.  But  in  as- 
serting here,  that  immutable  syllables  in  a  diatonic  melody  do 
pass  instantaneously  through  the  second  or  tone,  I  confess  my 
ear  cannot  measure  the  progress  of  the  transition.  Yet  I  am 
led  to  the  conclusion,  by  the  following  considerations. 

Every  concrete  utterance  of  a  tone,  with  its  measurable  incre- 


244  THE  RISING  SECOND. 

ments  of  time  and  motion,  has  manifestly  the  radical  and  vanish- 
ing progression.  Now  when  the  time  of  this  slow  and  manifest 
concrete,  is  gradually  shortened,  in  repeated  pronunciation,  till 
the  syllabic  impulse  becomes,  as  it  were,  a  mere  point  of  sound, 
the  characteristic  effect  of  this  instant-impulse  on  the  ear,  does 
not  differ  materially  from  that  of  the  concrete,  in  which  the  in- 
crements of  time  and  the  progress  of  pitch  are  measurable. 

But  further,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  concrete  interrogative 
intervals  of  the  third,  the  fifth,  and  the  octave,  may  be  passed 
through  on  an  immutable  syllable.  This  was  proved  by  the  pecu- 
liar effect  of  the  interrogative  voice  being  thereon  distinctly  cog- 
nizable :  and  we  shall  learn  in  the  next  section,  by  the  peculiar 
expression  of  the  semitone,  which  cannot  be  mistaken,  that  it 
does  likewise  pass  through  the  concrete,  on  the  shortest  syllables. 
Now  we  can  scarcely  suppose,  the  Tone,  has  not  the  same  concrete 
movement  on  momentary  syllables,  as  all  the  other  intervals  of 
the  scale,  when  uttered  with  the  same  momentary  impulse.  This 
however,  is  certain  ;  there  is  a  plain  but  characteristic  effect  in 
the  momentary  enunciation  of  immutable  syllables,  clearly  dis- 
tinguishable from  that  of  their  protracted  utterance  through  the 
concrete  space  of  a  semitone,  a  third,  and  othey  wider  intervals. 
This  may  be  a  mere  point  of  voice  ;  but  for  the  above  reasons,  we 
are  scarcely  allowed  to  doubt,  its  being  a  rapid  concrete  passage 
through  the  second  or  tone. 

Perhaps  the  reader  may  desire  to  know  particularly,  what  por- 
tions of  discourse  receive  the  tone  or  second  ;  and  with  what  con- 
tinuity the  diatonic  melody,  is  employed.  In  describing  and 
illustrating  this  melody,  it  was  for  a  purpose,  represented  as  ex- 
tended through  successive  sentences.  The  diatonic  movement  is 
however,  rarely  found  of  long  continuation  :  the  current  of  the 
Tone  being  interrupted  by  other  forms  of  upward  and  downward 
concrete  and  radical  pitch.  We  have  already  learned  in  what 
manner  the  wider  rising  intervals  are  employed  in  this  melody, 
both  for  emphasis,  and  interrogation ;  but  other  intonations  are 
also  occasionally  introduced  for  this  same  purpose  of  emphatic 
expression.  As  then,  occasions  for  using  these  expressive  inter- 
vals occur  in    most    discourse,  the  diatonic  melody  generally 


THE  RISING  SECOND.  245 

exists  only  in  detatched  portions  ;  its  continuity  in  the  tone  or 
second,  being  interrupted  by  these  other  intervals,  more  or  less 
frequently,  as  the  occasions  for  their  expression  return.  A 
Gazette  advertisement,  a  legal  instrument,  and  the  purely  com- 
municative style  of  plain  narrative  and  description,  may  generally 
be  read  in  the  thorough  diatonic  melody.  Yet  even  these  must 
have  emphatic  words ;  and  there  are  few  compositions,  addressed 
to  taste,  that  have  not  their  melody  varied,  by  the  more  or  less 
frequent  occurence  of  other  intervals  than  the  second.  Accord- 
ing to  the  line  I  have  endeavored  to  draw  between  mere  thoughts, 
and  what  are  called  sentiments  or  feelings,  and  consistently  with 
their  appropriate  intonation,  it  might  be  supposed,  the  demonstra- 
tions of  Euclid  should  be  read  in  one  continuous  stream  of 
diatonic  melody ;  but  even  these  are  perpetually  varied  by  wider 
intervals,  introduced  upon  illative,  absolute,  and  conditional 
phrases.  The  fragments  of  diatonic  melody,  occurring  in  prose 
declamation,  in  poetry,  and  in  the  drama,  are  generally  of  limited 
extent :  and  common  conversation,  when  not  didactic,  nor  de- 
signedly solemn,  nor  unavoidably  dull,  in  the  heedless  purposes 
of  its  intonations,  almost  effaces  the  simple  lines  of  this  melody 
by  the  vivid  coloring  of  its  widely  varied  intervals. 

Since  the  diatonic  melody,  is  assigned  restrictively  to  a  cer- 
tain character  of  discourse ;  and  since  it  is  desirable  that  this 
melody  should  be  executed  with  the  greatest  propriety  and 
elegance,  we  must  carefully  regard  the  uses  of  the  interval  of 
the  second  for  the  attainment  of  these  ends. 

This  proper  second  of  the  diatonic  melody,  being  incapable  of 
the  intonated  expression  of  other  intervals,  is  limited  in  its 
characteristic  powers,  to  the  means  of  time,  and  stress,  on  its 
own  simple  concrete,  and  wave.  The  different  forms  of  stress 
applicable  to  a  concrete  rise  of  the  second,  will  be  described  in 
a  future  section.  The  other  principal  means  for  adding  dignity 
and  grace  to  a  passage  of  this  plain  melody,  and  for  producing 
a  well  measured  rythmus,  is  by  the  varied  length,  of  syllabic 
quantity :  the  prolonged  quantity  being  made  by  a  continuation 
of  the  upward  into  the  downward  tone,  in  the  form  of  a  wave. 
It  is  not  however,  prolongation  alone,  that  produces  a  clear  and 


246  THE  RISING  SECOND. 

agreeable  effect,  in  a  dignified  form  of  diatonic  speech.  That 
length  should  be  made  in  the  equable  concrete  movement :  and 
further,  the  wave,  as  well  as  the  simple  rise,  should  have  the 
initial  fulness,  and  gradual  termination,  except  otherwise  varied 
by  the  purposes  of  stress.  He  who  has  not  cultivated  his  voice 
in  these  particulars,  Avill  find  it  difficult  to  give  extended  length 
to  an  indefinite  syllable,  with  its  co-existent  equability  and  van- 
ish :  and  will,  on  trial,  be  very  apt  to  carry  out  a  long  quantity, 
with  the  intonation  of  song.  But  if  he  will  throw  away  some 
of  his  ideas,  about  a  '  Natural  Turn'  for  things  ;  and  all  his  vain 
conceit  about  self-sufficient  Genius  ;  cease  to  believe,  that  a  good 
elocution,  is  co-eval  with  the  first  cries  of  infancy ;  and  then  set 
himself  to  learn  the  rudiments,  and  overcome  the  difficulties  of 
this  elegant  art,  the  light  and  guidance  of  a  special  purpose  in 
study  and  practice,  may  lead  him  to  an  unerring  command  over 
the  equable  concrete ;  and  to  the  attainment  of  every  propriety 
of  speech. 

Facility  in  managing  long  quantities  on  indefinite  syllables, 
with  a  precision  of  interval,  and  a  smoothness  and  nicety  of 
vanish  in  the  execution  of  this  equable  movement,  is  one  of  the 
most  effective  resources  of  a  speaker.  The  skillful  performance 
of  this  concrete  function,  in  the  impressive  fulness  and  dignity 
of  the  Orotund  voice,  gives  the  acknowledged  satisfaction  to  a 
discerning  ear,  when  an  Actor,  as  I  have  heard  one,  first  breaks 
his  silence  in  the  dialogue  ;  even  by  a  solitary  syllable.  With 
this  accomplishment  of  voice,  his  opening  effort  receives  at  once, 
from  a  competent  critic,  the  seal  of  approbation :  while  the 
Young  Genius  of  Inspiration,  stooping  for  help,  to  Green  Room 
traditions,  and  distracted,  perhaps  by  a  buzz  in  the  audience  or 
a  mistake  of  his  Costumer,  is  obliged  to  work  through  a  whole 
act,  before  he  can,  in  the  language  of  a  Natural  strutter  of  the 
Stage,  bring  himself  '  up'  to  his  voice. 


i 


THE  CROMATIC  MELODY.  247 


SECTION  XIX. 


Of  the  Interval  of  the  Ilising  Semitone  ;  and  of  the  Chromatic 
Melody  founded  thereon. 

The  smallest  but  not  the  least  important  division  of  the  scale, 
through  -^vhich  the  radical  and  vanish  may  be  heard,  is  the  inter- 
val of  a  Semitone.  In  the  second  section  of  this  essay,  ^ve 
learned  themean^s  for  acquiring  a  distinct  perception  of  this  con- 
crete interval.  It  was  there  said, — if,  in  ascending  the  scale,  the 
effect  of  the  transition  from  the  seventh  to  the  eighth  place  be 
compared  with  the  syllabic  utterance  of  a  plaintive  sentiment, 
their  identity  will  be  acknowledged.  Now  the  interval  from  the 
seventh  to  the  eighth,  in  the  diatonic  scale,  is  a  semitone.  This  i 
interval  is  used  in  speech  for  the  expression  of  complaint,  pity,  | 
grief, 'plaintive  supplication,  and  other  sentiments  allied  to  these. 
In  ascending  through  the  diatonic  scale,  by  a  repetition  of  the 
word  fire^  subdivided  into  two  syllables,  with  a  prefix  of  the 
subtonic  y-Q  to  the  last,  so  that  fi,  and  yer  shall  be  alternately 
set  on  successive  points  of  the  scale,  the  transition  from  the 
seventh  to  the  eighth  place  gives  to  the  word,  here  reduced  to  a 
single  syllable,  the  same  plaintive  expression  it  has  through  the 
streets,  in  the  outcry  of  alarm. 

Intonation  by  the  concrete  semitone,  is  universally,  the  sign 
of  animal  distress ;  and  when  exemplified  by  the  scale,  the  effect 
is  very  different  from  that  of  the  concrete  passage  of  the  word 
as  a  single  syllable,  through  the  space  of  a  whole  tone,  between 
its  first  and  second  degrees.  Among  a  multitude  of  voices 
where  the  alarm  is  given  by  public  cry,  this  utterance  through 
the  second  is  occasionally  heard  :  and  perhaps  some  of  my 
readers  may  be  able  to  call  to  mind  the  defect  of  its  dissonant 
difference  from  the  plaintive  intonation  of  the  great  majority. 
It  cannot  be  exemplified  by  the  pen  :  but  when  the  uncommon 
impression  of  a  particular  cry,  among  a  number,  is  not  produced 
by  quality  or  shrillness,  it  generally  arises  from  this  misapplied 


248  THE  CHROMATIC 

form  of  pitch.  "We  are  much  disposed  to  estimate  men  by 
assumed  characteristics  of  their  classes;  and  though  our  judg- 
ments thereby  may  sometimes  be  erroneous,  there  is  often  truth, 
and  always  caution  in  this  method  of  opinion.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  I  never  hear  the  phlegmatic  cry  of  fire,  through  a  whole 
tone,  without  a  pursuasion  of  the  general  impotence  or  de- 
formity of  the  voice  or  the  ear,  that  in  this  particular,  can 
so  far  transgress  the  ordination  of  nature.* 

The  semitone  is  employed  for  the  expression  of  gentleness  of 
feeling :  and  rarely  for  great  energy,  harshness,  or  impetuosity 
of  thought.  It  affects  generally  a  slow  time  and  long  quantity. 
The  interjective  exclamations  of  pain,  grief,  love  and  compassion, 
are  prolongations  of  the  tonic  elements  on  this  interval.  But 
its  effect  is  distinctly  perceptible,  on  the  short  time  of  immutable 
syllables.  For  it  will  be  found  on  experiment,  that  the  word 
cup.)  and  other  immutables,  can  be  uttered  with  a  plaintive 
intonation,  even  in  its  shortest  time.  Since  then  this  plaintive- 
ness,  on  long  quantities,  distinctly  measurable,  is  always  produced 
by  the  concrete  semitone,  and  not  by  any  other  known  interval 
of  speech ;  it  may  be  fairly  concluded,  when  this  plaintiveness 

*  Since  the  first  publication  of  this  work,  in  eighteen  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven,  the  practice  of  public  out-cry  in  the  streets  of  Philadelphia,  has  now  in 
eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-five, entirely  passed  away.  Instead  therefore  of  being 
as  formerly,  aroused,  in  the  stillness  of  midnight,  by  the  Watchman's  hollow 
Orotund,  to  the  plaintive  interests,  and  solemn  contrasts  of  near  and  distant 
solitary  cries,  awaking  our  safety  to  sympathy  with  the  perils  of  a  conflagration ; 
hear  what  we  have  now,  under  the  prosperous  onward-ism  of  our  great  political, 
moral  and  aesthetic  'mission' :  the  Alarm-bells  of  a  whole  city  at  once;  the  jangling 
clappers  of  Hose-carriages  without  number ;  the  ceaseless  roar  of  inarticulate 
trumpets  ;  the  screams  of  boys  ;  the  yells  of  men ;  the  wrangling  preparations 
for  a  street-fight ;  the  o«<-shouting  shouts,  upon  the  first  volley  of  stones ;  the 
discharge  of  revolvers ;  the  uproar  of  a  thousand  brutal  throats  ;  and  the  silent 
absence  of  a  'non-committal'  republican  police.  After  the  Imperial  Roman  had 
robbed-out  every  Treasury,  every  Temple,  and  every  private  purse,  within 
reach  of  his  quarrelsome  and  ruthless  sword,  his  avaricious  courage  failed  ;  and 
the  Barbarian  came  back,  and  down  upon  him  in  righteous  revenge.  We  with 
overmatching  cupidity,  are  pursuing  and  exterminating  the  Native  Indian  from 
his  Land.  But  Hah !  with  retributive  justice,  he  seems,  in  the  forced  submis- 
sion of  his  retreat,  to  have  thrown  away  to  the  winds,  his  gross  and  unlawed 
spirit ;  which  now,  like  a  national  malaria,  is  spreading  an  avenging  savagism 
among  his  conquerors. 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  249 

is  heard  on  an  immutable  syllable,  that  the  semitone  is  rapidly 
performed,  even  though  the  gradual  course  of  its  time  and 
motion  is  imperceptible. 

In  the  next  section,  we  shall  consider  the  nature  and  uses  of 
the  downward  vanishing  movement.  But  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider here  transiently,  the  downward  vanish  of  the  semitone ; 
since  it  is  one  of  the  constituents  of  the  chromatic  melody  of 
speech,  now  to  be  described. 

The  downward  radical  and  vanishing  semitone  may  be  exempli- 
fied comparatively,  by  beginning  with  the  word  fire  divided,  as 
before,  into  two  syllables,  fi  and  yer,  and  descending  except  at 
the  extremes  of  the  scale,  by  their  alternate  use.  The  con- 
crete movement  on  the  syllable  fire^  from  the  eighth  degree  to 
the  seventh,  has  a  plaintive  expression ;  whereas  the  movement 
on  the  same  single  syllable,  from  the  second  to  the  first,  has 
not  that  character.  When  therefore  the  voice  rises  concretely 
through  the  semitone,  at  the  summit  of  the  scale,  and  imme- 
diately in  continuation  descends  through  it ;  this  repetition  of 
the  interval  must  prolong  the  plaintive  impression.  Now,  as 
the  sentiment  which  dictates  the  semitone  usually  affects  a  slow 
time,  and  an  extension  of  syllabic  quantity,  the  expression  is 
generally  made  by  this  continuation  of  its  upward  into  its 
downward  concrete,  in  the  form  of  a  wave.  This  answers  two 
important  purposes.  It  produces  a  stronger  impression  of  the 
sentiment :  and  by  repeating  the  interval,  in  its  concrete  form, 
allows  a  prolongation  of  voice,  without  the  liability  of  a  long 
quantity,  to  pass  into  the  protracted  radical  or  protracted  van- 
ish of  song.  The  expressive  effect  of  this  doubled  semitone 
may  be  exemplified  on  the  word  fire,  as  a  single  syllable,  by 
making  an  immediate  return  in  the  downward  direction,  after 
ascending  to  the  top  of  the  scale :  for  this  exactly  resembles 
the  plaintive  utterance  of  a  protracted  syllable  of  speech. 

The  sentiments  naturally  expressed  by  the  semitone,  are  some- 
times restricted  to  individual  words ;  sometimes  they  extend 
over  phrases  and  sentences,  and  even  throughout  a  whole 
discourse.  These  last  occasions,  requiring  the  semitone  on 
every  syllable,  necessarily  produce  a  melody  consisting  of  a 
17 


250  THE  CHROMATIC 

continued  succession  of  that  interval.  In  the  eighth  section, 
the  Diatonic  melody  was  represented,  by  the  progression  of 
pitch  thrpugh  the  interval  of  a  whole  tone.  The  progression 
here  described,  being  through  a  semitone,  may  be  called  the 
Semitonic  or,  by  its  other  term,  the  Chromatic  Melody.  Like 
the  former,  it  is  subdivided  into  the  current  melody,  and 
the  melody  of  the  cadence.  The  movement  of  its  current 
may  be  resolved  into  seven  Phrases,  similar  to  those  in  the  dia- 
tonic progress.  But  as  the  change  by  radical  pitch  in  the 
chromatic  current,  as  it  appears  to  me,  is  through  the  interval  of 
a  tone,  only  when  it  descends,  and  not  when  it  ascends,  the  use 
of  the  nomenclature  must  be  pardoned,  when  I  call  the  several 
semitonic  phrases  by  the  terms  assigned  to  those  of  the  diatonic 
melody. 

The  doctrine  of  key,  and  modulation  is  the  same  in  the  two 
melodies.  A  similar  appropriation  of  phrases  to  the  pauses  of 
discourse,  for  continuing,  suspending,  or  closing  the  sense,  is 
used  in  each ;  and  the  same  rule  for  varying  the  phrases  of  the 
current  melody.  But  the  expression  of  the  chromatic,  being  gene- 
rally more  grave,  or  subdued  than  that  of  the  diatonic,  the 
former  more  frequently  affects  the  phrase  of  the  monotone. 

In  describing  the  diatonic  melody,  its  essential  movements  were 
subdivided  into  the  concrete,  and  the  radical  pitch.  The  same 
distinctions  occur  in  the  progression  of  the  chromatic  melody. 
Its  concrete  pitch  is  always  the  interval  of  a  semitone.  Its 
radical  pitch,  if  I  have  not  erred  in  observation,  is  conducted 
in  the  following  manner.  When  the  current  melody  descends, 
the  radical  change  is  downward,  over  the  space  of  a  whole  tone. 
But  when  it  ascends,  the  radical  change  is  upward  over  the 
space  of  a  semitone.  This  change  of  a  tone  in  descending,  will 
be  perceived  on  executing  the  downward  ditone  of  a  chromatic 
melody,  and  comparing  its  effect  with  that  of  the  two  first  con- 
stituents of  the  triad  of  the  diatonic  cadence:  for  if  the  down- 
ward radical  pitch  of  a  chromatic  melody  be  followed  by  another 
downward  radical,  similar  to  the  first ;  or  in  other  words,  if  we 
attempt  to  make  a  downward  tritone  in  a  plaintive  intonation, 
the  triad  of  the  cadence  will  be  thereby  so  nearly  accomplished, 


I 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  £51 

that  it  requires  for  its  consummation,  only  the  faint  downward 
vanish  of  that  triad  on  its  last  constituent.  Now  the  radical 
pitch  of  the  triad  of  the  cadence  is  formed  of  the  successive 
descent  of  whole  tones. 

The    following  considerations  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
radical  change  in  the  upward  direction,  is  in  some  cases  made 
by  the  step  of  a  semitone.     By  intonating  the  scale  in  the  man- 
ner directed  at  the  beginning  of  this  section,  it  will  be  perceived 
that  after  rising  through  the   first  semitone,  on  fiy  the  next 
syllable  yer  begins  at  the  top  of  that  preceding  concrete ;  thus 
making  the  radical  change  of  the  ascent  in  this  case,  a  semi- 
tone :  and  as  every  concrete  of  a  chromatic  melody  is  a  semitone, 
it  would  seem  to  follow,  by  the  rule  of  the  scale,  that  each  suc- 
cessive syllable  of  a  chromatic  progression,  when  the  radical 
pitch  rises  but  one  degree,  must  be  at  the  distance  of  a  semitone 
above  the  preceding.     But  it  has  been  shown  that  the  concrete 
pitch  of  this  melody  is,  in  slow  utterance,  generally  continued 
into  the  returniug  downward  vanish  of  the  semitone,  in  the  form 
of  a  wave.     On  this   occasion  then,  the  above  reason  for  the 
radical  change  taking  the  interval  of  a  semitone  in  its  upward 
progress  does  not  perhaps,  apply.     Whether  in  this  case  of  the 
returning  downward  concrete,   the   subsequent  radical  change 
upward  is  by  the  semitone  or  the  tone,  I  am  not  prepared  to 
decide,  with  the  confidence  I  have  felt  on  other  points  of  obser- 
vation recorded  in  this  work.     On  the  whole,  however,  there  is 
not  much  change  of  radical  pitch  in  this  melody ;    since  the 
monotone  is  its  prevalent  phrase.     The  question  is  however,  left 
for  the  inquiry  of  others  ;  but  not  to  be  made  a  subject  of  useless 
refinement  and  dispute ;  for  as  such,  it  can  be  of  no  importance 
in  our  Practical  Philosophy  of  Speech. 

We  learned  in  a  previous  section,  that  in  the  diatonic  melody, 
special  purposes  of  expression  call  occasionally  for  the  intro- 
duction of  the  interval  of  the  octave,  the  fifth,  and  third.  It 
will  be  asked,  perhaps,  whether  these  intervals  are  found  in  the 
course  of  a  chromatic  melody  :  and  if  so,  how  they  are  engrafted 
on  it.  They  have  a  place  in  it,  for  the  purpose  both  of  interro- 
gation and  emphasis ;  and  are  applied  in  the  following  manner. 


252  THE  CHROMATIC 

Since  plaintiveness  is  the  characteristic  of  this  melody ;  if  an  in- 
terrogative word  should  require  the  rise  of  either  the  octave,  fifth, 
or  third,  it  is  clear  that  the  expression  both  of  the  semitone,  and 
of  that  wider  interval,  should  if  possible,  be  conjoined.  But  by 
the  direct  rise  of  the  wide  interrogative  interval,  in  continuation 
of  the  semitone,  the  plaintive  expression  would  be  lost.  These 
two  apparently  incompatible  efiects  therefore  can  be  conjoined 
on  one  syllable,  for  the  purpose  of  chromatic  interrogation,  or 
for  emphasis,  only  by  leading  the  voice  in  the  form  of  a  wave, 
through  the  upward  into  the  downward  semitone  on  the  appointed 
syllable ;  and  afterwards  in  continuation  from  the  extremity  of 
the  downward  vanish  through  the  upward  concrete  of  the  octave, 
fifth,  or  third,  as  the  intended  interrogation,  or  the  emphasis  may 
require ;  thus  forming  what  we  called  in  the  second  section,  a 
double-unequal  wave.  When  the  peculiar  keenness  and  force  of 
expression,  ascribed  to  the  octave  is  recollected,  it  must  at  once 
be  supposed, —  it  is  rarely  found  among  the  signs  of  semitonic 
interrogation :  the  third  or  fifth  being  commonly  used  for  this  pur- 
pose. Perhaps  the  reader  may  not  here  require  an  illustration 
of  the  chromatic  melody,  by  the  staif.  The  precision  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  to  the  terms  of  the  description,  will  it  is 
hoped,  enable  him  to  understand  it  without  delineation,  or  to 
mark  the  tablature  for  himself.* 

•  I  here  give  place  to  the  reader ;  for  surely,  by  a  knowledge  of  our  princi- 
ples of  delineation,  he  can  make  the  illustration  for  himself. 

It  is  the  great  recommendation  of  a  System  of  Elocution,  derived  from  the 
pure  and  living  Fountain  of  Nature,  whence  every  true  and  lasting  work  of 
genius  flows,  that  its  principles  may  be  recorded,  and  an  available  knowledge 
of  its  precepts  and  practice,  diffused  and  perpetuated.  But  it  is  worthy  of 
notice,  on  this  subject,  as  on  most  others,  that  exactness  of  knowledge,  whether 
from  the  modest  quietude  of  its  progress,  or  its  freedom  from  ill-tempered 
controversy,  has  always  been  the  least  sought,  if  not  the  last  desired,  by  the 
mass  of  even  the  so-called  wiser  part  of  mankind.  And  certainly,  it  is  not  a 
little  remarkable,  in  regarding  all  the  Five  Modes  of  the  voice,  that  Pitch, — 
which  with  its  exact  intervals  of  vocal  Intonation,  has  been,  and  ever  will  be 
unalterable  in  nature,  and  which  is  the  only  one  precisely  describable  by  defi- 
nite degrees, —  should  be  that  particular  Mode,  of  the  Five,  which  has  been, 
and  still  is  declared  not  only  to  be  unknown,  but  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
future  discovery.  And  all  this,  because  somebody  first  said  so ;  and  then  every 
following  individual  of  the  Flock  said  so,  after  him. 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  053 

The  cadence  of  a  cliromatic  melody  is  made  by  a  peculiar 
construction  of  the  triad. 

The  reader  will  find  on  experiment,  there  is  no  other  means 
for  reaching  the  full  and  satisfactory  pause  of  discourse,  on  three 
distinct  syllables,  than  that  of  the  diatonic  cadence,  formed  by 
the  radical  descent  of  whole  tones,  as  noted  in  the  first  and 
second  diagrams  of  the  cadence,  in  the  eighth  section.  Conse- 
quently the  chromatic  triad  must  be  made  by  a  similar  radical 
descent ;  since  a  downward  triad  of  three  semitones,  would  make 
no  more  than  a  tone  and  a  half.  But  the  concrete  pitch  or 
vanish  of  these  radicals,  thus  descending  by  a  tone,  is  made 
through  the  space  of  a  semitone ;  and  the  plaintive  character  of 
the  melody  is  thus  communicated  to  its  close. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  here,  that  a  sentence  requiring  the  chro- 
matic intonation,  may  sometimes  be  terminated  by  the  plain 
diatonic  triad,  whether  the  close  is  made  on  separate,  or  on  con- 
joined constituents ;  and  further,  that  unimportant  and  slightly 
marked  particles  in  a  chromatic  sentence,  may  receive  a  radical 
and  vanishing  whole  tone,  without  affecting  the  plaintive  expres- 
sion ;  provided  the  semitone  is  heard  on  all  important  words, 
and  long  quantities.  The  forms  of  the  diatonic  cadence,  occa- 
sionally applied  to  a  chromatic  melody,  are  described  in  the 
eighth  section.  I  here  consider  the  cadence  that  bears  a  plain- 
tive expression. 

The  chromatic  cadence  may  be  made  on  a  single  long  syllable ; 
or  it  may  be  allotted  to  two  syllables  ;  or  the  space  of  its  descent 
may  be  divided  between  three. 

"When  the  three  constituents  are  joined  severally  to  three  sepa- 
rate syllables,  the  close  is  made  by  taking  the  radicals,  at  the 
interval  of  a  whole  tone  in  descent  from  each  other ;  and  by  giv- 
ing to  each  of  the  constituents,  except  the  last,  the  rising  vanish 
of  a  semitone  ;  the  last  having  the  feeble  downward  vanish  of  the 
diatonic  close.  This  is  exemplified  in  the  following  diagram ; 
•  where  the  vanish  and  the  upiuard  change  of  radical  pitch  are 
both  to  be  taken  as  a  semitone  ;  and  the  downivard  radical, 


254 


THE  CHROMATIC 


either  as  a  whole  tone  or  a  semitone ;   for  I  leave  this  as  a  ques- 
tionable point. 

Pit ty    the     sor rows        of       a      poor      old        man. 


It  is  true,  the  last  constituent  may  terminate  with  a  downward 
semitone ;  or  may  rise  through  a  semitone,  and  then  in  continua- 
tion descend  concretely  below  the  pitch  of  its  radical ;  thus  car- 
rying the  plaintive  expression  to  the  very  close.  But  in  this  case 
the  perception  of  the  cadence  will  not  be  so  complete  as  when 
made  according  to  the  above  notation. 

The  chromatic  triad  may  also  be  made  by  forming  a  wave  with 
the  interval,  and  carrying  its  downward  concrete,  into  the  full 
body  of  the  succeeding  radical :  or  otherwise  by  the  downward 
concrete,  meeting  as  it  were,  the  radical  but  not  coalescing  with 
it.  In  the  latter  case  the  radical  can  receive  an  abrupt  fulness, 
but  not  in  the  former.  Now  a  cadence  is  more  complete,  with 
the  radicals  strongly  marked  :  as  in  the  following  diagram: 


A 

poor 

old 

man. 

^ 

^  ^ 

^\-r-^ 

-^         1 

^  1 

When  the  plaintive  cadence  is  restricted  to  two  syllables,  they 
may  be  connected,  in  like  manner,  by  the  wave  of  the  semitone 
on  the  first  constituent  of  the  triad,  continued  downward  to  the 
last;  either,  by  carrying  the  downward  concrete  into  the  full 
body  of  its  radical,  or  by  its  only  meeting  but  not  coalescing  with 
it :  which  last  case  is  here  illustrated  : 


A 

poor 

old 

man. 

^ 

4 

^  ^^ 

^-\ 

-•< 

The  reader  can  imagine,  or  draw  for  himself,  two  dia- 
grams, in  other  respects  similar  to  the  above,  but  with  the 
downward  vanish  entering  into  the  radicals,  for  the  coalescing 


MELODY  OF  SPEECH.  255 

form  :  in  wliicli  case  there  will  be  a  swelling  fulness  of  voice, 
at  the  place  of  the  radicals,  without  a  break  in  the  line. 

There  may  be  a  chromatic  descent  on  a  single  long  syllable : 
but  it  should  never  be  used  in  correct  speech,  except  for  some 
special  design  of  expression,  unconnected  with  the  mere  cadence. 
For,  to  distinguish  it,  as  a  chromatic  close,  from  the  feeble  dia- 
tonic cadence,  it  is  necessary,  by  the  previous  rise  of  a  semitone, 
to  give  it  a  plaintive  character.  Now  the  continuation  of  this 
rising  semitone  into  a  downward  terminative  concrete  may  indeed 
have  the  effect  of  a  close  :  but  it  has  at  the  same  time,  an  intona- 
tion, altogether  foreign  to  the  desirable  and  appropriate  character 
of  the  chromatic  cadence. 

There  is  still  another  form  of  the  Chromatic  close,  resembling 
the  skipping,  or  false  cadence  of  the  diatonic  melody.  It  consists 
of  a  concrete  semitone  on  the  antepenult  syllable,  and  an  imme- 
diate discrete  descent  by  radical  pitch  to  the  final  constituent  of 
the  triad ;  omitting  the  second  altogether.  We  do  not  need  a 
diagram  of  this  form,  since  it  is  shown  by  the  last  example  of 
notation,  supposing  it  to  be  without  the  concrete  meeting  of  the 
two  constituents.  It  is  rarely  used  as  a  close ;  and  only  when  a 
peculiar  emphasis  may  be  required  on  the  last  word  of  the  sen- 
tence. 

As  in  the  diatonic  cadence,  so  in  the  chromatic,  there  are 
different  degress  of  repose :  and  these  depend  on  its  construc- 
tion. That  entire  consummation,  required  at  the  period  of 
discourse,  is  effected  by  the  triad  form  in  the  first  of  the  above 
notations.  The  second  which  is  still  a  triad,  with  its  three  con- 
stituents meeting,  but  not  coalescing  by  the  downward  vanish,  has 
as  strongly  marked  a  character  as  the  first.  The  coalescing  form 
denotes  less  repose  ;  since  the  radicals  are  less  distinctly  marked  by 
the  abrupt  fulness  :  and  it  is  this  conspicuous  display  of  a  descent 
in  radical  pitch  that  produces  the  remarkable  effect  of  a  vocal 
period.  The  third  construction  represented  above,  is  the  most 
feeble  form  of  the  chromatic  cadence ;  for  being  upon  two 
syllables,  it  is  deprived  in  a  grefit  degree,  of  the  effect  of  the 
downward  change  of  radical  pitch ;  and  therefore  falls  short  of 
the  expression,  required  for  a  satisfactory  close. 


256  THE  CHROMATIC 

In  concluding  this  history  of  the  five  rising  intervals  of  pitch, 
and  of  their  uses  in  elocution,  I  have  only  to  add  that  the 
Fourth,  Sixth,  and  Seventh  may  be  employed,  for  interrogative, 
and  emphatic  expression,  respectively  similar  to  that  of  the 
third,  fifth,  and  octave.  But  the  third,  fifth,  and  octave, 
severally  adjacent  to  those  other  intervals,  are  by  some  natural 
constitution  of  the  ear,  more  easily  recognized  as  definite  points, 
not  only  on  the  discrete  steps  of  an  instrumental  scale,  but  as 
terminative  places,  in  the  concrete  and  discrete  movements  of 
the  human  voice.  On  this  account  therefore,  the  enumeration 
in  the  preceding  sections  has  been  limited  to  the  semitone, 
second,  third,  fifth,  and  octave  of  the  diatonic  scale.  I  have 
not  particularly  inquired  into  the  characters  of  the  remaining 
fourth,  sixth  and  seventh,  or  of  any  fractional  extensions  of  the 
other  five  :  believing, —  they  only  express  unimportant  variations 
in  degree,  of  the  sentiments  conveyed  by  those  vre  have  particu- 
larly described. 

In  the  foregoing  description  of  the  concrete,  its  rising  inter- 
vals have  been  represented  as  bounded  by  fixed  points  of  the 
scale.  But  it  has  just  been  said, —  besides  the  second,  third, 
fifth,  and  octave,  other  intermediate  variations  of  these  intervals 
may  be  used,  as  vocal  synonymes  in  speech.  It  is  therefore 
necessary  to  be  more  particular  on  this  subject ;  and  to  answer 
my  own  question,  whether  the  attenuated  close  of  the  vanish, 
does  impress  the  ear,  with  the  exact  place  of  a  musical  interval 
on  ■  the  scale.  I  might  not  have  noticed  this  matter,  if  the 
possibility  of  measuring  the  intonations  of  speech,  had  not, 
almost  universally,  been  denied ;  and  if  I  had  not  thought,  this 
old  prejudice,  CA'en  after  all  we  have  shown,  might  when  driven 
to  its  corner,  make  a  desperate  defence,  by  some  unnecessary 
refinement  on  such  a  question.  I  do  not  say,  the  stops,  as  they 
may  be  called,  of  the  vanish,  if  even  sufiSciently  exact  as  I 
believe  them  to  be,  are  as  strikingly  impressed  on  the  ear,  as 
those  marked  with  a  full  note,  either  by  the  voice  or  by  instru- 
ments. And  although  a  want  of  accuracy  in  the  vanish,  may 
not  be  as  readily  perceived,  as  in  the  other  cases,  still  great 
precision  on  this  point,  is  not  required  in  speech.     In  music, 


MELODY  OF  SrEECH.  257 

with  its  full  notes  of  the  discrete  scale,  false  intonation  is  im- 
mediately obvious,  even  in  the  successions  of  melody ;  and  in 
the  co-existent  notes  of  harmony,  the  effect  is  still  more  remark- 
able. But  speech  is  a  solo,  as  well  as  a  concrete  performance, 
and  therefore,  any  slight  want  of  accuracy  at  the  point  of  the 
vanish,  even  if  perceptible,  is  nevertheless,  under  my  observa- 
tion, of  very  little  consequence.  If  our  sentiments  were 
marked  in  degree,  by  nice  distinctions,  it  would  be  proper 
to  express  them,  by  like  gradations  in  the  voice.  But  as  in  the 
grammatical  variation  of  adjectives,  the  three  degrees  suffi- 
ciently distinguish  the  countless  shades  of  comparison,  so  with 
the  interrogative  intervals,  a  difference  of  third,  fifth  and  octave, 
is  sufficient  for  present  practical  use  of  their  vocal  expression. 

The  second  it  has  been  shown,  has  what  we  call  a  plain  dia- 
tonic character,  appropriate  to  narrative,  and  unimpassioned 
discourse.  It  may  then  be  asked,  whether  a  want  of  precision, 
in  marking  the  interval  would  destroy  that  character.  By  my 
observation,  it  would  not ;  provided  the  variation  be  slight,  and 
not  diminished  one  half,  down  to  a  semitone,  nor  extended  half 
a  tone,  up  to  a  mijior  third ;  the  former  producing  a  plaintive 
expression,  and  the  latter,  as  a  fault,  being  inadmissible  into 
speech.  But  should  the  voice,  in  executing  its  various  intervals, 
even  exceed,  or  fall  short  of  the  exact  points  of  the  scale,  let 
others  decide  the  question  of  its  impropriety.  To  my  ear  how- 
ever, for  all  the  precision  required  by  this  case,  there  is  no 
false  intonation  at  the  close  of  the  vanish,  that  has  ever  marred 
the  purpose  of  a  correct  and  elegant  elocution. 

But  admitting  precision  of  interval  to  be  a  matter  of  import- 
ance, the  command  over  it  may  be  easily  acquired ;  since  the 
vanish  cannot  be  attenuated  beyond  the  ability  of  the  ear  to 
measure  it.  The  place  in  pitch,  of  a  prolonged  note  of  song, 
with  what  is  called  a  diminuendo,  is  still  cognizable,  as  long  as 
it  is  heard ;  and  it  is  equally  so  in  the  vanish,  or  diminuendo  of 
a  concrete  interval  of  speech  :  though  the  sentiment  is  conveyed 
more  forcibly  by  the  louder  voice.  How  far  this  accuracy  of 
intonation  may  be  required  in  speech,  when  we  shall  have 
arranged  the  chaos  of  our  thoughts  and  feelings,  into  some  effi- 


258  THE  DOWNWARD  RADICAL 

cacious  system  of  definite  ideas,  with  open  and  honorable  purposes, 
must  be  determined  by  time.  From  the  past,  present,  and 
prospective  disorderly  state  of  the  human  mind  and  passions,  I 
have,  in  this  essay,  probably  assigned  more  definite  degrees,  and 
forms  of  intonation,  whether  true  or  false,  than  will  ever  be  used 
by  the  greater  part  of  oratorical  mankind. 

If  this  trifling  matter  is  really  indeterminable,  let  it  be  ex- 
cluded, with  all  like  refinements,  from  what  should  be  a  Practical, 
not  a  Contentious  system  of  elocution.  Those  who  have  so  dog- 
matically asserted  the  impossibility  of  measuring,  what  they 
call  the  'tones  of  the  voice,'  could  not  have  referred  to  the  point 
under  consideration.  For  had  the  renowned  Adam  Smith, —  who, 
as  one  of  the  number,  may  fairly  represent  them, —  only  carried 
his  sagacious  powers  of  inquiry,  thus  far  into  speech,  he  would 
have  clearly  seen  that  the  determination  of  this  question  is  of 
little  if  any  importance  to  an  effective  elocution. 


SECTION  XX. 
Of  the  Downward  Radical  and  Vanishing  Movement. 

The  functions  of  pitch  hitherto  described,  are  performed 
principally  by  a  rising  progress  of  the  concrete,  and  of  the 
radical  change. 

In  an  early  page  of  this  essay  we  learned,  that  the  voice 
takes  a  reverse  direction ;  that  the  radical  movement,  opening 
with  fulness  on  a  given  place  in  the  scale,  descends  through  its 
destined  interval,  with  the  same  equable  concrete  structure  and 
diminishing  force  which  characterizes  the  upward  vanish.  We 
must  now  consider  the  varieties  of  form  in  the  downward  con- 
crete, the  occasions  of  its  use,  and  the  nature  of  its  expression. 


AND  VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  259 

The  downwcard  progress  of  the  voice  is  made  through  all  the 
intervals  of  the  scale.  In  like  manner  with  the  rise,  the 
descent  is  both  by  a  concrete  movement,  and  by  a  discrete 
change  or  skip  of  radical  pitch.  The  characteristic  effect  of 
the  descent,  whether  made  concretely,  or  by  discrete  skip,  and 
the  expression  of  the  several  intervals,  may  be  learned,  by  the 
following  experiments. 

Let  the  reader  express  himself  with  astonishment,  on  the 
exclamatory  phrase,  well  done ;  assuming  the  first  word  at  a 
high  pitch ;  bringing  down  the  last  concretely  from  that  hight, 
on  a  prolonged  quantity ;  and  uttering  the  phrase  as  if  it  were 
the  close  of  a  sentence.  Should  the  intonation  on  the  word 
done,  be  measured  by  the  scale,  it  will  in  his  yet  unskillful 
attempt,  exemplify  the  Downward  concrete  Octave,  or  near  it. 
Again,  let  him  give  the  interjection,  heigli-lio,  with  a  degree 
of  emphasis  that  may  throw  these  two  syllables  on  the  extremes 
of  the  compass  of  the  natural  voice.  He  will  thereupon  per- 
ceive, the  transition  from  the  elevated  pitcb  of  heigh,  to  the 
inferior  place  of  ho,  is  by  a  discrete  or  skipping  descent.  Now 
this  transition,  when  measured  by  the  scale,  illustrates  the  down- 
ward Radical  pitch  of  the  octave,  or  near  it. 

The  Downward  Fifth,  may,  in  like  manner  be  distinguished, 
both  in  its  concrete  pitch  and  its  discrete  radical  change,  by  re- 
spectively applying  them  to  the  words  of  the  preceding  examples ; 
but  with  less  emphatic  force,  and  with  a  less  striking  intonation. 

The  concrete  Descent  of  the  Third  may  be  illustrated,  by  pro- 
nouncing the  word  No,  as  if  it  were  the  last  word  of  a  sentence ; 
observing  to  give  it  some  length,  and  to  exclude  every  expression, 
except  the  simple  indication  of  the  cadence.  The  downward 
Radical  pitch  or  skip  of  the  third,  may  be  exemplified  by  pro- 
nouncing the  phrase,  made  an  attack,  as  if  it  were  a  full  close ; 
giving  the  syllables,  made  an  at,  in  the  monotone,  and  making 
the  satisfactory  close  on  tack.  For,  in  this  case  the  syllable  at 
is  the  first  constituent  of  the  triad;  and  being  by  its  short  quan- 
tity, incapable  of  completing  the  cadence  through  the  descent 
of  the  slow  concrete,  the  voice  of  necessity  leaps  over  the  place 
of  the. second  constituent,  and  closes  on  tack,  in  the  proper  point 
of  the  third. 


260  THE  DOWNWARD  RADICAL 

The  effect  of  the  Downward  concrete  Second  or  tone  may  be 
heard  on  the  last  constituent  of  the  diatonic  triad ;  and  the  radi- 
cal change  of  the  second,  in  the  descent  of  the  constituents  of 
the  same  cadence,  since  its  radicals  succeed  each  other  by  the 
downward  difference  of  a  tone. 

The  downward  concrete  of  the  Semitone  was  deswibed  in  the 
last  section,  as  being  plaintively  obvious  in  the  vocal  transition 
from  the  eighth  to  the  seventh  place  of  the  scale.  If  the  down- 
ward change  of  the  Radical  pitch,  in  a  chromatic  melody,  is  like 
that  of  its  cadence,  but  of  which  I  have  made  a  question,  in  the 
last  section,  it  follows  that  we  have  no  instance  in  speech,  of 
the  discrete  downward  pitch  of  the  semitone.  But  we  leave 
this  for  future  observers. 

If  the  reader  is  by  this  time,  expert  in  ascending  both  con- 
cretely and  discretely,  through  every  interval  of  the  scale, 
he  may,  after  ascending,  immediately  return  through  the  same 
interval,  with  the  impression  of  its  extent  upon  his  ear; 
and  thus  by  practice  on  all  the  intervals,  become  familiar  with 
the  different  degrees  and  characters  of  the  downward  movement, 
both  in  its  concrete  and  discrete  forms. 

We  have  been  considering;  the  downward  movement  on  long 
quantities :  but  like  the  rising  progress,  it  may  be  rapidly  per- 
formed on  immutable  syllables.  Yet  when  the  characteristic  ex- 
pression of  a  downward  interval  is  required  on  immutable  syl- 
lables, the  transition  as  with  the  upward,  is  generally  made  by 
the  change  of  radical  pitch. 

The  expressive  powers  of  the  downward  radical  and  vanish 
will  be  assigned,  in  a  future  consideration  of  the  particular  inter- 
vals of  the  scale.  As  a  general  remark  on  its  character,  it  may 
be  said,  in  contradistinction  to  the  interrogative  effect  of  the 
rising  Third,  Fifth,  and  Octave,  that  the  downward  progress 
through  these  intervals,  whether  concrete  or  discrete,  denotes 
positive  affirmation ;  directly  the  reverse  of  doubt,  implied  in  a 
question.  Some  other  inquirer  may  hereafter,  more  accurately 
refer  this  expression  of  the  downward  concrete,  to  a  general  class 
of  phenomena  in  vocal  science;  and  thus  satisfy  the  demands  of 
philosophy.      I  cannot,  however,  withhold  the  suggestion,  yet 


AND  VANISHING  MOVEMENT.  261 

wishing  to  be  cautious  "vvith  mere  analogical  argument,  that  the 
positiveness  may  arise  from  its  conjoining  with  an  emphatic  im- 
port, a  certain  degree  of  the  decisive  character  of  the  cadence : 
for  this  seems  to  preclude  the  expectation  of  further  doubt  or  re- 
ply, by  a  satisfactory  repose  of  the  ultimate  intonation  on  a  fin- 
ished sense.  In  support  of  this  suggestion,  let  us  bring  to  mind, 
that  the  replications  of  doubtful  argument,  from  mere  courtesy 
between  speakers,  are  not  so  often  marked  with  complete  cadences 
as  the  termination  of  the  sense  in  many  of  the  phrases  would 
otherwise  bear.  But  we  know  that  when  assertions  become  au- 
thoritative from  truth,  or  dogmatic  from  opinion,  the  closing 
intonation  of  the  cadenceisfreely  employed  as  the  definite  seal  of 
self-confident  affirmation. 

After  all,  however,  Truth,  the  strict  monitor  of  philosophy, 
reproves  us  for  our  conjectures,  and  allows  us  here,  only  to  set 
forth  this  new  instance  of  consistency  in  the  ordinations  of 
nature :  for  as  the  sentiment  of  inquiry  is  contrary  to  that  of 
assured  declaration,  so  in  the  instinct  of  the  voice,  for  the 
expression  of  these  opposite  sentiments,  the  very  opposite  courses 
of  rise  and  of  fall,  are  employed  as  their  respective  intonations. 

The  downward  movement,  whether  in  its  concrete,  or  discrete 
form,  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  emphasis ;  and  will  be  particu- 
larly described  in  a  future  section.  It  has  perhaps  an  equal 
power  of  attraction  over  the  ear,  with  the  upward  movement  in 
each  of  its  forms.  The  expression  of  amazement,  wonder, 
surprise,  and  admiration,  when  not  conjoined  with  an  interroga- 
tive meaning,  generally  assumes  this  form  of  intonation ;  the 
extent  of  the  interval  being  proportional  to  the  degree  of  energy 
in  the  sentiment.  Since  the  downward  progression  differs  from 
the  upward,  only  by  its  taking  a  different  direction,  we  may  look 
for  the  same  characteristic  construction  in  each.  The  same 
explosive  fulness  should  mark  the  radical ;  the  same  equable 
movement,  its  descent ;  the  same  delicate  diminution,  its  final 
vanish  into  silence. 

After  these  general  remarks  on  the  subject,  we  proceed  to  the 
history  of  the  particular  intervals  of  the  downward  concrete. 


262  THE  DOWNWARD  OCTAVE. 


SECTION  XXI. 
Of  the  Interval  of  the  Downward  Octave. 

The  concrete  Downward  Octave,  in  addition  to  the  expression, 
ascribed  generally  to  the  downward  movement,  conveys  in  the 
colloquial  uses  of  the  voice,  the  vivacity  of  facetious  surprise, 
as  in  the  instance  of  the  phrase  ivell  done,  given  above.  It  is 
in  this  case,  the  very  picture  of  amazement,  and  so  to  speak, 
raises  the  brow  and  opens  the  eye  of  the  voice.  In  its  more 
dignified  uses,  there  is  the  highest  degree  of  admiration,  aston- 
ishment, and  positive  command,  either  alone,  or  united  with 
other  sentiments.  Thus  the  astonishment  and  positiveness 
marked  by  this  interval,  may  be  coexistent  with  the  complacent 
feeling  of  mirth  and  sociability,  or  with  the  repugnant  senti- 
ment of  fear,  contempt,  hatred,  or  in  short,  with  almost  any 
state  of  mind  not  incompatible  with  that  of  astonishment,  and 
positiveness.  For  though  these  associated  sentiments  have  other 
signs  in  expression,  yet  when  they  go  with  this  high  degree  of 
astonishment,  the  downward  octave  is  the  true  and  only  sign  of 
the  combination. 

But  as  the  same  interval  thus  represents  different  sentiments, 
it  may  be  inquired,  whether  some  modification  of  its  structure 
may  not  be  necessary.  It  was  shown  in  the  second  section,  that 
the  concrete  movement,  whether  in  its  upward  or  downward 
direction,  bears  with  distinguishable  audibility,  additional  force 
or  stress,  on  the  beginning,  the  middle,  or  the  end  of  its  pro- 
gress through  a  prolonged  quantity.  Now  the  application  of  a 
different  stress  to  the  downward  octave,  variously  modifies  its 
expression.  On  the  radical,  it  denotes  a  high  degree  of  mirthful 
wonder.  On  the  middle  of  its  course,  by  a  swell  at  that  place, 
the  expression  becomes  more  serious  and  repulsive  with  its 
wonder.  On  the  upper  extreme,  reversing  thus  the  natural 
structure  of  the  radical  and  vanish,  it  increases   the   degree  of 


THE  DOWNWARD  FIFTH.  263 

the  repulsion,  and  mingles  with  it  some  slight  sentiment  of  anger 
and  of  scorn.  The  characteristic  thus  assigned  to  the  octave, 
might  at  once  assure  us  that  it  is  of  rare  occurrence.  It  may 
be  found  occasionally  in  the  intensity  of  colloquial  excitement, 
and  in  the  fervor  of  the  drama :  but  never,  perhaps,  in  the 
course  of  plain  narrative  or  description,  since  the  strained 
energy  of  its  expression  must  be  the  real  or  the  personated 
pouring  out  of  the  heart. 

For  an  illustration  of  the  downward  Radical  Pitch  of  the 
octave ;  there  is,  in  the  first  diagram  of  the  fourteenth  section,  a 
notation  of  the  fall  of  the  voice,  from  an  upper  current  of  melody, 
—  supposed  to  be  on  immutable  syllables, —  to  an~  indefinite 
syllable,  an  octave  below,  for  the  purpose  of  rising  again  through 
a  concrete  octave.  This  downward  radical  pitch  has  the  same 
expression  as  the  downward  concrete  octave ;  and  is  employed 
in  skipping  from  immutable  syllables,  in  phrases  of  emphatic 
astonishment,  admiration,  and  command. 


SECTION  XXII. 

Of  the  Interval  of  the  Downward  Fifth. 

The  expression  of  the  last  described  interval  is  marked  by  a 
quaint  sentiment  of  familiarity,  or  by  an  excessive  degree  of 
violence.  The  Downward  concrete  Fifth  has  in  many  respects 
a  similar  meaning ;  but  it  clothes  its  sentiment  of  smrling  sur- 
prise, admiration,  and  command,  with  greater  dignity  than  the 
octave.  This  interval  is  often  used  on  imperative  phrases.  Its 
concrete,  like  that  of  the  octave,  may  be  modified  in  meaning, 
by  diiferent  applications  of  stress. 

In  the  following  derisive  exclamation  of  Gabriel  to  Satan, 


26-4  THE  DOWNWARD  FIFTH. 

from  the  fourth  book  of  Pardise  Lost,  the  syllable  ra  is  pro- 
perly made  by  the  natural  form  of  the  fifth :  that  is,  by  stress 
on  the  radical  or  opening  portion  of  the  interval,  ■while  the 
vanish  dwindles  away  in  its  descent. 

Courageous  chief! 
The  first  in  flight  from  pain ! 

When  the  Queen  says  to  Hamlet, 

If  it  be,  [that  is,  if  death  be  the  common  lot] 
Why  seems  it  so  particular  with  thee? 

Hamlet  returns, 

Seems,  Madam,  nay  it  is!  I  know  not  seems. 

Now,  is,  uttered  with  the  natural  downward  concrete  of  the 
fifth,  represents  the  positive  affirmation  and  surprise  of  the 
speaker,  at  the  misconception  of  his  real  state.  But  the  solemn 
feeling  of  the  prince,  which  rejects,  with  indignation,  the  pro- 
fanity of  the  supposition,  that  there  is  any  formal  show  in  the 
deep  reality  of  his  grief,  cannot  be  expressed  by  the  natural 
form  of  the  radical  and  vanish.  There  is  a  light  and  pleasant 
surprise  in  the  form  of  this  concrete,  that  would  misrepresent 
the  sentiment.  If  the  voice  is  swelled  to  a  greater  stress  as 
it  descends,  the  grave  severity  and  dignified  conviction  of  the 
speaker  become  at  once  conspicuous.  The  intonation  of  this 
line,  without,  however,  the  swelling  stress  on  the  falling  fifth, 
may  be  thus  delineated : 

Seems,     Ma dam,       nay  it        is!       I      know  not    seems. 


^-^^ 


^I^jCj^= 


Here  a  rising  third,  or  the  most  moderate  form  of  interroga- 
tive expression,  is  set  to  the  first  word  :  for  it  includes  a  slight 
sentiment  of  inquiry.  The  succeeding  clause,  containing  a  most 
positive  affirmation,  has  the  downward  fifth ;  and  the  whole 
diagram  is  calculated  to  show  the  opposite  powers  of  expression 


THE  DOWNWARD  FIFTH.  265 

in  the  rising  and  falling  intervals.  In  a  future  section,  it  -will 
be  shown  y^hj  the  radical  of  this  emphatic  downward  movement 
is  set,  as  here  represented,  so  far  above  the  line  of  the  current 
melody. 

The  Discrete  transition  of  the  falling  fifth,  has  the  same 
expression  as  its  concrete  form.  It  is  used  for  syllables  that  do 
not  bear  a  prolongation,  necessary  for  the  concrete ;  the  two 
extremes  of  the  interval,  as  in  all  cases  of  discrete  transition, 
whether  rising  or  falling,  being  on  two  different  syllables.  The 
following  notation  exemplifies  the  radical  change  or  skip  of  the 
falling  fifth : 

Yet  Bra tus       says         he  was  am biti ous. 


The  sentiment  of  this  line,  as  it  seems  to  me,  requires  the 
intonation  of  grave  surprise  rather  than  that  of  contemptuous 
contradiction,  with  which  it  is  sometiqies  read :  and  this  I  have 
endeavored  to  express,  by  the  radical  skip  of  a  fifth,  between 
the  syllables  of  Bru-tus,  and  of  biti-ous.  The  craft  of  Antony's 
oration,  in  Julius  Ccesar,  turns  upon  the  design  to  excite  odium 
against  the  conspirators,  by  a  favorable  and  moving  repre- 
sentation of  Caesar's  virtues,  rather  than  by  the  coloring  of 
their  crimes.  And  though  in  the  well  known  burden  of  the 
speech,  they  are  reported  as  'honorable  m^n,'  certainly  not 
with  the  least  good  will  in  the  title ;  still,  the  vocal  curl  of 
sneer,  sometimes  heard  on  the  words  just  quoted,  is  inappro- 
priate and  affected.  At  least  this  may  be  said  of  it,  as  it  oceura 
in  the  early  part  of  the  speech :  and  when  at  last  the  speaker  ia 
encouraged  to  bolder  sentiments  and  declarations,  they  are  those 
of  anger  and  revenge;  and  these  waste  no  time  in  the  winding 
course  of  contemptuous  intonation.  But  whatever  may  be  said 
of  other  parts  of  the  speech,  I  must  claim  for  the  above  sen- 
tence, the  intonation  which  expresses  the  surprise  of  the  orator, 
that  any  one  could  so  violently  reverse  the  just  conclusions  to  be 
18 


266  THE  INTERVAL  OF 

drawn  fi'om  the  enumerated  motives  and  actions  of  Csesar : 
leaving  to  the  audience  to  infer,  from  this  surprise,  that  some 
other  than  ordinary  or  honest  reasons  must  have  infl-uenced 
Brutus  to  make  the  charge  of  ambition  against  him.  When 
the  line  is  read  in  the  common  diatonic  melody,  with  the  differ- 
ence of  a  tone  only  in  the  radical  pitch  of  its  emphatic  words, 
it  merely  reports  what  Brutus  had  said :  without  the  least  show 
of  the  sentiment  I  have  ascribed  to  it,  and  endeavored  to  illus- 
trate by  the  preceding  diagram. 


SECTION  XXIII. 
Of  the  Interval  of  the  Downward  Third. 

The  Downward  Concrete  Third  has  an  expression  similar  to 
that  of  the  fifth,  but  of  a  more  moderate  degree. 

Dignity  of  vocal  character,  like  that  of  personal  gesture, 
consists  not  only  in  the  slowness  of  time,  and  the  restraint  of 
forceful  effort,  but  in  a  limitation  within  the  widest  range  of 
movement.  And  as  there  is  more  composure  in  an  interrogation, 
by  the  rise  of  the  third ;  so  the  expression  of  surprise  and 
admiration  by  a  downward  interval,  is  most  subdued  and  digni- 
fied, when  heard  on  the  falling  third. 

One  remarkable  effect  of  the  concrete  descent  of  the  third,  on 
a  single  syllable  of  long  quantity,  is  shown  at  the  end  of  a  sen- 
tence, or  of  a  clause,  containing  a  complete  sense,  but  which 
may  not  be  marked  by  the  grammatical  notation  of  a  period. 
This  use  of  the  third  was  noticed  and  illustrated  in  the  eighth 
section,  and  there  described  as  the  feeble  Cadence.  Its  cha- 
racter is  not  quite  definite :  for  while  indicating  a  close  of  the 
sense  at  its  place,  it  does  not  altogether  destroy  the  idea  of 
its  further  continuation.  No  one  on  hearing  this  cadence,  would 
suppose  the  discourse  to  be  necessarily  finished. 


THE  DOWNWARD  THIRD.  057 

As  the  rising  third  is  sometimes  used  for  emphasis  alone,  inde- 
pendently of  its  interrogative  import ;  so  the  falling  third  may  be 
employed  without  expressing  surprise  or  command,  merely  for 
varying  the  effect  of  intonation.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
following  diagram. 

None  but        the        brave!  None      but        the      brave! 


#— l^—J 


None 

but 

the 

brave 

de — 

—serve 

the 

fair. 

*^- 

^ 

r- 

^ 

d" 

^ 

^ 

4 

W 

^ 

<# 

^\ 

^ 

There  is  certainly  no  inquiry  conveyed  by  these  words  :  yet 
we  have  the  rising  interval  of  the  third  on  one  of  the  emphatic 
syllables.  But  there  is  a  feeling  of  admiration  in  the  case,  that 
may  be  expressed  by  the  upward  third.  And  it  will  be  shown 
hereafter  that  all  emphatic  words,  whatever  other  sentiments 
they  may  embrace,  do  carry  with  them  something  of  the  ad- 
mirable. On  this  ground  then  the  emphatic  repetitions  of  the 
word  hrave  might  receive  the  same  interval.  I  have  varied  the 
intonation  by  setting  the  plain  rising  second  to  the  first  brave,  the 
downward  third  to  the  second,  and  the  rising  third  to  the  last  : 
and  this  appropriation,  together  with  the  falling  third  on  the 
word  none,  in  its  third  place,  does  at  least  produce  a  varied  effect. 
Speakers  who  are  not  aAvare  of  the  full  efficacy  of  intonation,  and 
who  cannot  therefore  skillfully  command  it,  endeavor  to  attain  a 
desirable  variety  in  these  lines  by  a  transfer  of  the  emphasis 
of  force ;  and  apply  it  successively  to  none  and  hut  and  brave. 
Such,  I  know,  was,  and  perhaps  still  is  the  formula  for  these 
lines,  in  all  our  Schools  and  Colleges.  Regarding  here  the  ap- 
parent purpose  of  the  poet,  and  the  consistent  design  of  vocal  ex- 
pression, this  variation  is  altogether  inadmissible.  The  contra- 
distinction made  in  this  case,  by  applying  stress  to  different 
words,  in  each  repetition,  gives  different  meanimgs  to  the  phrase. 
But  reiteration  is  the  rhetorical  sign  of  fulness  of  feeling,  or  of 


268  THE  INTERVAL  OF 

its  rising  energy  ;  and  never  of  a  change  of  sense.  Tiie  attempt 
therefore  to  vary  the  meaning  of  this  phrase,  which  must  be  iden- 
tical under  any  change  of  emphasis,  offends  against  both  dignity 
and  truth,  and  betrays  a  limited  power  over  the  ample  means  for 
vocal  variety.  A  full  command  of  quantity,  and  of  the  nume- 
rous forms  of  expression,  renders  it  easy  to  relieve  the  ear  from 
monotony  on  this  passage,  without  changing  or  distorting  the 
sense  of  the  author  :  for,  if  the  composition  was  a  prompting  of 
poetry,  and  not  a  mere  trick  of  words  and  emphasis,  the  sense 
must  have  been  intended,  under  any  climax  of  feeling,  to  be  one 
and  the  same,  in  all  the  repetitions. 

In  the  above  notation,  I  have  not  illustrated  the  uses  to  be 
made  of  time,  force,  the  tremor,  and  other  forms  of  intona- 
tion, though  all  are  available,  and  give  additional  means  for 
variety. 

The  downward  radical  pitch  of  the  third  is  employed  for  the 
purpose  of  emphasis :  particularly  where  this  is  necessary  on  im- 
mutable syllables.  But  there  is  a  special  use  of  this  interval,  for 
effecting  a  full  consummation  of  the  close  of  melody.  In  the 
eighth  section  it  Avas  shown  that  different  species  of  the  cadence 
denote  various  degrees  of  repose  :  the  triad  form,  in  which  each 
of  the  radicals  with  its  downward  vanish,  is  heard  distinctly  in 
successive  descent,  being  the  most  marked  indication  of  the  pe-  ' 
riod.  It  is  possible  however,  to  increase  the  characteristic  of 
this  form,  by  additional  means.  When  a  melody  is  in  the  higher 
range  of  pitch,  a  gradual  descent  of  the  current,  as  it  approaches 
the  cadence,  may  be  employed  with  that  intent ;  and  properly. 
But  another  more  elegant  and  impressive  manner  is,  to  apply 
the  downward  radical  change  of  a  third,  with  cither  a  rising  or 
falling  concrete,  according  to  the  effect  desired,  on  some  syllable 
preceding  the  close,  as  in  the  following  notation: 

Through        E den     look       their        sol i ta ry  way. 


^^ 


THE  DOWNWARD  THIRD.  269 

When  this  line  is  read  throughout,  with  only  the  radical  change 
of  a  second,  the  cadence,  with  its  three  descending  radicals 
and  concretes,  does  indeed  mark  a  completion  of  the  sense  ;  but 
the  radical  skip  of  a  downward  third,  from  de?i  to  took,  gives 
that  warning  of  the  period,  or  that  note  of  preparation,  which 
produces  the  utterly  reposing  conclusion,  required  by  the 
audience,  and  due  by  the  reader,  at  the  termination  of  Paradise 
Lost.  The  last  line  of  Pope's  translation  of  the  Iliad,  may  be 
read  to  the  same  notation.  '  And  peaceful  slej)t  the  mighty 
Hector's  shade.'  It  does  not  appear,  in  this  form  of  the  Cadence, 
that  the  syllable  should  be  emphatic,  except  for  its  preparatory 
purpose ;  or  that  it  should  be,  in  different  sentences,  at  any 
fixed  distance  from  the  cadence.  Nor  is  a  choice  forbidden, 
between  words  more  or  less  removed  from  the  close,  in  the  same 
sentence.  In  the  two  examples  of  iambic  lines,  it  falls  on  the 
cesura  of  a  like  foot,  in  each.  In  the  following,  from  the  final 
Benediction  of  the  Church-service,  it  occurs  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  Triad,  '  The  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with 
us  all  evermore.  In  the  fulfillment  of  Elisha's  imprecation 
on  Gehazi,  it  may  be  placed  either  on  the  sixth  or  ninth  syllable 
before  the  cadence,  and  perhaps  on  both.  '  And  he  went  out 
from  his  presence,  a  leper  as  white  as  snow.' 

Other  cadences  denote,  in  various  degrees,  the  conclusion  of 
a  particular  sense.  This  Prepared  Cadence,  if  we  may  so  call 
it,  implies  that  the  subject  itself,  of  a  paragraph,  a  chapter,  or  a 
volume,  is  finished. 

In  the  eighth  section,  five  forms  of  the  cadence  are  named. 
Now  the  Prepared,  which  is  however,  no  more  than  an  em- 
phatic addition  to  the  close,  may  be  united  with  each  of  these, 
if  we  may  perhaps  except  the  feeble  cadence;  but  its  purpose  is 
only  strictly  fulfilled  when  it  is  placed  before  the  second  triad, 
with  a  downward  concrete,  on  each  of  its  constituents.  All  the 
forms  of  the  cadence  are  severally  required  by  speakers,  to  give 
a  just  character  and  variety  to  the  close. 

It  is  not  expected,  the  reader  will  be  able  at  once  to  distin- 
guish, and  to  apply  all  the  forms  of  tho  cadence.  Some  of 
them,  however,  cannot  be  mistaken.     The  prepared  form  of  the 


270  THE  DOWNWARD  SECOND  AND  SEMITONE. 

falling  triad,  is  the  most  complete  close ;  and  this  is  clearly 
separable  from  -what  was  called  the  feeble  cadence,  or  the 
faintest  indication  of  the  period.  With  attention  to  our  history, 
no  ear  will,  on  exemplification,  confound  the  effect  of  the  two 
triads,  and  the  feeble,  with  that  of  the  prepared  cadence. 

I  have  little  to  say  of  the  minor  third ;  the  expression  of  its 
downward,  like  that  of  its  upward  concrete  movement,  is  plain- 
tive ;  but  as  well  as  my  car  informs  me,  it  is  only  heard  as  a 
fault  in  speech. 


SECTION  XXIV. 
Of  the  Downward  Second  and  Semitone. 

I  HAVE  classed  the  Downward  Second  and  Semitone,  under 
the  same  head,  on  account  of  the  limited  extent  of  the  remarks 
here  made  upon  them.  They  have  a  high  importance  in  speech, 
but  it  is  principally  as  downward  continuations  of  their  previous 
rise,  into  that  form  of  intonation,  called  the  wave. 

A  remarkable  use  of  the  downward  concrete  second  or  tone, 
is  as  the  last  constituent  of  both  the  diatonic  and  the  chromatic 
cadence.  It  forms  severally,  the  constituents  of  the  falling 
triad:  and  is  used, —  though  its  effect  is  not  very  conspicuous, 
—  in  the  successions  of  the  diatonic  melody,  for  the  purpose 
of  contrast  with  the  rising  second,  which,  in  the  history  of  that 
melody,  was,  according  to  the  progressive  method  of  unfolding 
our  subject,  given  as  its  sole  characteristic. 

The  downward  concrete  semitone  is  employed  for  the  pur- 
pose of  variety,  in  the  current  of  a  chromatic  melody.  It  is 
also  applied  to  the  first  and  second  constituents  of  a  chromatic 
cadence ;  the  radical  descent  of  this  cadence  being  by  the  skip 
of  a  whole  tone  ;  and  the  downward  vanish  on  the  last  or  closing 
constituent,  being  through  the  space  of  that  same  second  or  tone. 


THE  DOWNWARD  SECOND  AND  SEMITONE.  271 

In  terminating  the  history  of  the  downward  intervals,  one  can- 
not avoid  pausing  for  a  moment,  in  admiration  at  the  simple 
and  well  adjusted  means,  for  the  multiplied  combinations,  and  ap- 
parent complexity  of  vocal  expression.  Nor  can  the  prophetic 
eye  of  science  and  taste,  well  survey  these  means,  without 
reaching  to  some  foreknowledge  of  that  Systematic  Art  of 
Speech,  which  at  no  distant  day,  must  be  raised  upon  the  new 
and  lasting  foundation  of  Analytic  Elocution.  I  have  not 
extended  the  inquiry,  nor  presumptuously  endeavored  to  apply 
the  principles  founded  thereon,  to  the  entire  detail  of  the  sub- 
ject ;  being  contented  to  encourage  others  towards  a  work  of 
greater  range  and  precision,  by  setting  before  them  what  is  here 
accomplished,  in  a  case  of  supposed  impossibility.  For  if  the 
Course-Art  of  Popularity  is  not  now  at  work,  to  make  the 
Fine  Arts  all  his  own,  I  must  hope,  there  will  be  some  beautiful 
finishing  of  that  system  for  the  ordering  of  speech,  which  is 
here  but  just  begun.  He  who  chooses  to  follow  the  path  thus 
opened,  may  fortunately  find  himself  among  the  first  comers  to 
an  ungathered  field :  a  field,  un visited  and  unclaimed,  only 
because  it  is  believed  by  the  indolent,  to  be  barren  or  inaccessi- 
ble ;  or  because  the  eye  of  irresolute  inquiry  has  been  turned 
from  the  leading  star  of  observation,  by  the  vain  attractions  of 
theory,  and  the  delusive  authority  of  names.  For  what  does 
the  term,  genius  for  discovery  mean,  besides  —  the  art  of  for- 
getting ourselves  and  others,  and  looking  broadly,  exclusively, 
and  perseveringly  at  our  work  ?  Too  many,  alas  !  imagine  they 
are  doing  all  these  things,  when  they  are  only  thinking  exclu- 
sively, and  perseveringly,  of  themselves  and  notoriety ;  and 
hunting,  sharp-scented,  and  broadly,  after  the  favorable  opinion 
of  mankind. 


272  THE  WAVE  OF  THE  VOICE. 


SECTION  XXV. 

Of  the  Wave  of  the  Voice. 

The  "Wave  of  the  voice,  as  briefly  explained  in  the  second 
section,  signifies  a  continuation  of  the  upward  into  the  downward 
concrete  movement.  TVe  are  told  by  the  Greeks,  that  this 
function  was  known  to  them.  But  if  nature  did  favor  them 
with  the  important  secret,  they  were  thriftless  in  the  trust, 
and  only  hid  their  talent  in  the  napkin.  It  is  noticed  by 
modern  writers,  particularly  by  Mr.  Steele  and  Mr.  Walker, 
under  the  term.  Circumflex  accent. 

As  the  wave  is  composed  of  the  two  opposite  courses  of  pitch, 
each  of  which  may  be  of  difi"erent  intervals ;  and  as  the  direction 
of  the  voice  at  its  outset,  and  the  number  of  its  flexures  may 
vary,  the  reader  must  expect  to  find  in  the  history  of  this  sign, 
numerous  and  somewhat  complicated  subdivisions. 

The  Wave  is  a  very  frequent  form  of  expression,  and  performs 
important  oflSces  in  speech.  It  therefore  becomes  him  who  is 
willing  to  turn  from  the  falterings  of  an  instinctive  elocution,  to 
the  fulness,  the  purpose,  and  the  precision  of  scientific  rule, 
not  to  overlook  the  subject  of  the  wave. 

In  order  to  represent  this  matter  clearly,  let  the  several 
upward  and  downward  movements,  of  the  wave,  be  called  its 
Constituents.  The  constituents  may  then'  be  severally  octaves, 
fifths,  thirds,  seconds  and  semitones,  either  in  an  upward  or 
downward  direction. 

Further,  as  the  upward  and  downward  concrete  may  be  of 
varied  extent,  it  follows  that  the  wave  may  be  constituted  of  an 
upward  and  downward  movement  of  the  same  interval ;  or  these 
constituents  may  differ  from  each  other.  Thus  the  wave  may 
consist  of  a  rising  and  a  falling  third  conjoined ;  or  of  a  rising 
second  continued  into  a  falling  third.  These  varied  construc- 
tions give  occasion  for  a  distinction  of  the  wave  into  Equal,  and 
Unequal. 


THE  WAVE  OF  THE  VOICE.  273 

It  will  be  found  on  experiment,  that  the  wave  with  its  first 
constituent  ascending,  and  its  second  descending,  has  a  diflferent 
expression  from  one,  with  a  reverse  course  of  its  constituents. 
Of  the  variations  thus  produced,  let  the  former  case  be  called 
the  Direct  wave,  and  the  latter  the  Inverted. 

I  have  thus  represented  the  wave  as  consisting  of  two  con- 
stituents only ;  but  it  may  have  three  or  even  more ;  for  the 
Direct  may  have  a  subsequent  rising  interval,  and  the  Inverted, 
a  subsequent  falling  one.  When  there  are  but  two  constituents, 
it  may  be  called  the  Single,  and  when  three,  the  Double  wave. 
Should  there  be  more  than  three,  as  may  happen  in  cases,  to  be 
pointed  out  presently,  it  may  be  called  the  Continued  wave. 

These  several  forms  admit  of  various  combinations  with  each 
other.  Thus  the  equal  and  the  unequal  wave  may  each  be 
direct  and  inverted,  single  and  double.  The  double-unequal 
may  have  its  three  constituents  dissimilar ;  or  two  of  them,  the 
first  and  second,  or  second  and  third,  or  first  and  third  may  be 
alike.  The  direct  and  inverted,  may  each  be  equal  or  unequal, 
single  or  double.  And  the  single  and  double  may  each  be  equal 
or  unequal,  direct  or  inverted. 

But  perhaps  these  relationships  will  be  better  understood  from 
the  tabular  view  in  the  next  page. 


274 


TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  WAVE. 


Equal, 


^ 


Single, 


W 


Double, 


g       ( Octave, 
g  tb  j  Fifth, 
Direct,      .S  I  i  Third, 
-jg  "C    I  Second, 
•p  Semitone, 

^       f  Octave, 
I  ^0  I  Fifth, 

Inverted,  •  S  S  ^  Third, 
"S  t^    i'  Second, 
•^       I  Semitone, 


W 


Direct, 


Inverted 


3 


?       f  Octave, 
S  fab  f  Fifth, 
•S  -i  ^  Third, 
"S  'S    I  Second, 
•^       (^  Semitone, 

£    .      Octave, 
I  %'     Fifth, 
'ZB-i  Third, 
,S  =2    I  Second, 
S       l^  Semitone,  > 


Single, 


Unequal, 


t       r  Octave, 

Direct, 

^  to      Fifth, 
.S  -i  ^  Third, 

m  'E    j  Second, 
•f^       1^  Semitone, 

>       1  Octave, 

Inverted 

-2  ^D      Fifth, 
•S  13  ^  Third, 
M  t^      Second, 
i§       1  Semitone, 

w 

Direct, 


Double,    o   ■* 


W 


"3       f  Octave, 
I  tb  I  Fifth, 
-S  .5  -j  Third, 
'.Z^  "S    1  Second, 
£       1  Semitone 


Inverted,  ^  .2 


Octave, 

Fifth, 
_  Third, 
j  Second, 
i^  Semitone, 


THE  WAVE  OF  THE  VOICE.  275 

In  the  preceding  table,  only  the  first  constituent  of  the  un- 
equal wave  is  given.  I  therefore  subjoin  a  tabular  scheme  of  the 
second  and  third  constituents  of  this  wave,  in  its  single  and  its 
double  forms.  But  the  reader  is  to  take  the  greater  part  of  these 
tabular  views,  as  the  history  of  what  may  be  performed  by  the 
voice,  in  the  multiplicity  of  its  combinations  ;  not  as  the  record 
of  a  point,  as  yet,  of  any  practical  utility. 

In  thus  penetrating  the  recesses  of  nature,  we  must  be  allowed 
to  describe  her  most  minute  phenomena,  however  presently  use- 
less it  may  be.  Nearly  all  the  forms  of  the  wave  here  noticed, 
might  be  made  designedly  by  a  skillful  effort  of  intonation  ;  and 
perhaps  are  made  in  daily  discourse,  by  the  instinctive  efforts  of 
speech.  But  the  expression  of  the  unequal  wave,  as  far  as  I  can 
perceive,  is  limited  to  a  few  sentiments :  most  of  the  varieties 
here  given,  being  only  permutations  of  constituents,  answering 
the  same  purpose.  Whether  these  signs,  not  specially  significant 
with  us,  have  ever  been  used  to  denote  ideas  or  feelings,  or  ever 
will  be,  is  yet  to  be  told.  We  have  heard, —  but  belief  should 
keep  a  skeptic  watch  on  hearing, —  that  the  Chinese  vary  the 
meaning  of  the  same  elemental  or  syllabic  sound,  eight  or  ten 
times,  by  changes  of  intonation.  Do  they  draw  upon  any  of  the 
forms  of  the  following  table  of  the  unequal  wave  ? 


276 


TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  WAVE. 


The  first  consti-      The  geoond  con- 
tueot  being  Blitucnt  being 

either  a 


The  third  con- 
stituent being 
either  a 


Single. 


Direct 


Inverted, 


Direct 


Inverted, 


Direct 


Inverted, 


Direct 

or 

Inverted, 


Direct 

or 

Inverted, 


Double. 


< 


Direct 


an  Octave. 


a  Fifth. 


a  Third. 


a  Second. 


a  Semitone. 


an  Octave. 


a  Fifth. 


a  Third. 


^  Semitone 
J  second 
\  third  or 

t  fifth. 

{Semitone 
second 
third  or 
octave. 

C  Semitone 
J  second 
J  fifth  or 
L  octave. 

{Semitone 
third 
fifth  or 
octave. 

{Second 
third 
fifth  or 
octave. 


a  Second. 


Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

J 

Direct       1 

^     °'"    ,     V  a  Semitone. 
Inverted,     I 


Sem 
Scm 
Sem 
.Sem 
i  Sem. 

''sem. 
Sem. 
Sem. 
Sem. 
Sem. 

Sem. 
Sem. 
Sem. 
Stm. 


Sem.  2d  .3d  5th  or  8lh.  I 
Sem.  2d  3d  5th  or  8th. 
Sem.  2d  3d  5th  or  Sth. 
Sem.  2d  3d  5th  or  8th. 
Sem.  2d  3d  or  5th. 

Scm.  2d  3d  5th  or  Sth. 
Sem.  2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
Sem.  2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
Scm.  2d  3d  or  Sth. 
Sem.  2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 


2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 

2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  5th  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  2d  Sth  or  Sth. 

2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 
2d  3d  Sth  or  Sth. 


THE  WAVE  OF  THE  VOICE.  277 

From  a  comprehensive  view  of  this  table  it  is  manifest,  there 
might  be  other  methods  of  arranging  its  details.  Each  of 
the  distinctions  given  above  might  be  taken  as  the  generic  heads 
of  the  wave  ;  and  the  others  might  be  included  as  species.  Thus 
we  might  take  the  five  intervals,  for  heads  of  as  many  sections. 
Then  under  each,  for  instance  the  octave,  we  might  consider, 
First,  the  equal  form  of  this  interval,  and  its  combination  with 
other  intervals  into  the  unequal  form ;  Second,  its  direct  and  in- 
verted ;  and  Third,  its  single  and  double  forms.  Or  we  might 
take  the  distinction  into  single  and  double  for  the  two  generic 
heads,  and  under  each  of  these,  enumerate  the  species,  as  being 
equal  or  unequal,  direct  or  inverted  :  and  so  of  any  other  assumed 
order  of  these  distinctions. 

I  shall,  according  to  the  arrangement  in  the  table,  divide  the 
phenomena  of  the  wave  into  two  great  classes,  the  Equal  and  Un- 
equal ;  and  subdividing  each  of  these  by  the  five  intervals  of  the 
scale,  shall  under  the  heads  of  these  intervals,  consider  the  direct 
and  inverted,  the  single  and  double  forms. 

The  pains  taken  to  define  the  technical  terms  of  this  essay, 
together  with  the  exemplification  by  diagrams,  in  the  second  sec- 
tion must  have  rendered  all  the  movements  through  the  scale, 
quite  familiar  to  those  who  really  desire  to  learn.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  wave  may  therefore  be  so  easily  understood,  that  with- 
out a  further  notation,  the  reader  can  readily  imagine  its  various 
forms,  in  applying  them  to  syllables. 

In  order  to  understand  the  purpose,  and  expression  of  the 
wave,  let  us  recollect  that  it  is  compounded  of  a  rising  and  a  fall- 
ing interval,  the  several  characteristics  of  which  have  already 
been  described.  Now  it  will  be  found,  that  the  wave  generally 
partakes  of  the  respective  powers  of  its  constituents ;  and  further, 
that  a  continuous  line  of  contrary  flexures,  enables  the  voice 
to  carry  on  a  long  quantity,  without  the  risk  of  falling  into  the 
linear  intonation  of  song. 

The  expression  of  the  wave  in  all  its  forms,  is  modified  by  the 
application  of  stress  to  different  parts  of  its  course  :  at  the  begin- 
ning, or  at  the  end,  or  at  the  place  of  junction  of  its  constituents. 


278  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  OCTAVE. 

SECTION  XXVI. 
Of  the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Octave. 

The  Equal  "Wave  of  the  Octave,  is  made  by  a  movement  of  the 
voice,  through  its  upward,  and  continuously  into  its  downward  in- 
terval. It  may  be  either  single,  consisting  of  two  constituents ; 
or  double,  consisting  of  three  :  though  this  double  form  is  scarcely 
used.  It  may  also  be  differently  constructed,  by  the  first  con- 
stituent ascending,  and  the  second  descending,  forming  the  di- 
rect ;  and  by  a  reversed  succession,  forming  the  inverted  wave. 

The  equal  wave  of  the  octave  in  its  single  form  is  rarely  em- 
ployed in  serious  discourse.  If  used  in  the  lower  range  of  pitch, 
to  avoid  the  sharpness  of  the  falsettte,  it  gives  an  appropriate 
expression  to  the  strongest  sentiment  of  astonishment  and  of  ad- 
miration. When  it  assumes  the  higher  range,  as  it  is  apt  to  do, 
it  loses  its  dignity  as  an  impressive  sign.  Children  sometimes 
employ  it  for  mockery  in  their  contentions  and  jests.  Its  double 
form  has  the  same  expression,  under  a  more  continued  quantity. 
The  reverse  order  of  its  constituents,  gives  a  different  character, 
respectively  to  its  single-direct,  and  its  single-inverted  forms  ; 
for  the  latter  by  ending  in  an  upward  concrete,  has  the  intona- 
tion of  a  question,  through  what  we  called  the  Interrogative 
Wave :  while  the  former  by  a  downward  final  movement,  has  the 
positivcness  and  surprise  of  the  simple  falling  intervals.  When  the 
direct  and  the  inverted  wave  of  the  octave  is  respectively  double, 
the  rule  of  final  expression  will  be  reversed ;  for  the  double- 
direct  Avill  then  end  with  the  rising  or   interrogative  movement. 

On  the  whole,  the  double  form  of  the  wave  claims  attention 
rather  as  a  part  of  our  physiological  history,  than  as  a  subject 
of  oratorical  propriety  and  taste ;  and  may,  in  point  of  use  and 
expression,  be  rather  classed  among  vulgar  mouthings. 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  FIFTH.  279 

SECTION  XXVII. 
Of  the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Fifth. 

Enough  has  been  said  of  intervals,  to  explain  the  nature  of 
the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Fifth.  Its  nomenclature  is  descriptive 
of  its  structure.  Nor  need  it  be  shown  particularly  of  this,  nor 
indeed  of  the  succeeding  sectional  heads  of  the  wave,  in  what 
manner  the  single  and  double,  the  direct  and  inverted  forms  are 
made. 

The  equal  wave  of  the  fifth,  is  used  as  one  of  the  means  of 
emphatic  distinction ;  and  has  therein  an  expression  varying 
Avith  its  form.  The  equal-single-direct  wave  of  the  fifth  consists 
of  an  ascending  and  descending  concrete,  each  having  in  its 
separate  state,  respectively,  the  sentiment  of  interrogation  and 
of  positiveness  and  surprise.  But  a  junction  of  these  opposite 
constituents  takes  in  a  great  degree,  from  the  rising,  its  indica- 
tion of  a  question,  while  it  leaves  to  the  falling,  the  full  character 
of  positiveness  and  surprise.  There  is  however,  another  efi'ect 
of  this  junction,  besides  the  overruling  of  interrogation.  When 
a  sentiment  requiring  the  downward  fifth,  is  grave  or  dignified, 
that  character  is  expressed  by  pre-joining  the  rising  fifth,  and 
thus  forming  the  direct  wave.  And  further,  the  direct  wave 
is  used  instead  of  the  simple  fall,  merely  to  give  time  to  the 
syllable  that  bears  it ;  for  should  the  sentiment  of  the  emphatic 
syllable  require  a  prolonged  quantity,  this  wave  takes  the  place 
of  the  simple  interval,  which  under  unskillful  intonation  might, 
in  the  efibrt  to  extend  it,  be  liable  to  pass  into  the  linear 
intonation  of  song. 

The  inverted  wave  of  the  fifth  has  the  compound  expression 
of  surprised  interrogation,  produced  by  the  termination  of  its 
last  constituent  in  the  upward  vanish.  And  thus  it  appears,  the 
direct  wave  of  this,  as  well  as  of  other  wider  intervals,  retains 
a  degree  of  interrogation ;  and  the  inverted,  a  degree  of  its 
positiveness  and  surprise. 


280  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  THIRD. 

There  is  not  much  difference  between  the  expression  of  the 
single,  and  the  double  wave  of  the  fifth,  except  what  arises  from 
a  change  of  structure  by  the  addition  of  a  third  constituent. 
The  double-direct  here  assumes  an  interrogative  expression, 
from  the  vanishing  rise  of  its  last  constituent ;  and  the  double- 
inverted  has  the  meaning  of  surprise  from  its  downward 
termination.  Perhaps  there  is  a  little  scorn  conveyed  by  the 
double  form  of  the  equal  wave  of  the  fifth.  This  is  .certainly 
the  case  when  the  last  constituent  receives  greater  stress  than 
the  others.  On  the  whole,  however,  this  double  form  is  not 
very  frequently  used  as  a  sign  of  expression. 


SECTION  XXVIII. 
Of  the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Third. 

TiiE  Equal  Wave  of  the  Third,  in  the  degree  of  its  expression, 
bears  such  a  relation  to  the  equal  wave  of  the  fifth,  as  the  simple 
rise  of  the  third  bears  to  the  simple  rise  of  that  interval. 

In  all  its  forms,  whether  single  or  double,  direct  or  inverted, 
the  expression  resembles  respectively,  but  in  a  more  moderate 
degree,  that  of  the  different  species  of  the  equal  wave  of  the  fifth. 
From  its  less  impressive  character,  it  is  more  frequently  em- 
ployed for  emphasis  in  plain  and  dignified  discourse,  than  the 
fifth  and  the  octave,  which  are  especially  appropriate  to  col- 
loquial dialogue,  and  to  the  wider  intonation  of  the  drama. 
It  also  serves,  like  the  other  waves,  to  extend  the  quantity  of 
syllables  in  deliberate  and  dignified  discourse;  and  to  preserve, 
at  the  same  time,  the  characteristic  concrete  of  speech. 

The  equal  wave  of  the  minor  third  is  used  in  song,  but  is  not 
admissible  into  speech.  The  expression  of  the  inverted  wave 
of  this  interval,  docs  not  differ  much  from  that  of  its  direct 
form. 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND.  281 


SECTION  XXIX. 

0/  the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Second. 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  equal  wave  of  the  second,  which 
if  ever  the  time  for  a  Natural,  and  thereupon  a  Scientific  Sys- 
tem of  Elocution  shall  come  to  pass,  will  be  regarded  as  a  very 
important  and  interesting  part  of  intonation. 

The  difficulty  'of  arranging  perspicuously  the  details  of  a 
subject,  altogether  as  new  to  the  author  himself,  as  to  his 
reader ;  and  of  giving  a  full  description  of  parts  that  are  ele- 
mentary and  closely  related,  but  that  must  be  successively 
explained,  has  obliged  me  to  proceed  in  the  way  of  gradual 
and  partial  development;  of  subsequent  addition;  of  antici- 
pation ;  and  of  frequent  reconsideration,  which  distinguishes  the 
proposed  method  of  this  essay.  For  the  complete  arrangement 
of  a  science,  which  in  the  progress  of  years  or  centuries,  has 
gradually  grown  to  the  fulness  and  accuracy  of  its  definitions 
and  order,  method  after  method  has  been  tried  and  rejected ; 
and  the  studious  inquirer,  knowing  the  attempts  and  failures  of 
liis  predecessors,  is  taught  the  deficiencies  and  requisites  of 
classification.  But  for  this  oficred  system  of  intonation,  there 
was  no  preceding  outline  of  truth ;  no  instructive  sketches  of 
corrected  errors,  to  save  me  from  my  own ;  and  as  yet,  even  no 
friendly-enmity  of  criticism  to  '  pluck'  them  from  my  pages  and 
'throw  them  in  my  face.'  I  was  therefore  at  first,  and  even  in 
preparing  this  fourth  edition,  obliged  to  ask  the  poor  assistance 
of  my  own  endeavors,  to  supply  ray  oversights,  and  correct  my 
faults.  A  hard,  and  too  often  a  vain  and  fruitless  labor. 
Consistently  with  the  manner  of  Dividing  and  Instructing  here 
;aploycd,  our  account  of  the  diatonic  melody,  regarded  only 
the  radical  and  concrete  pitch  of  the  second,  and  its  successions; 
in  order  thereby  to  avoid  confusing  the  reader.  Other  functions 
and  uses  of  the  concrete  were  therefore  kept  out  of  view.  It 
19 


282  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND. 

has  since  been  shown,  that  the  dovrnward  vanish  of  a  second  is 
introduced,  for  the  purpose  of  varying  the  current ;  and  that 
for  interrogative,  and  for  emphatic  expression,  other  intervals, 
both  rising  and  falling,  and  these  united  into  the  wave,  con- 
tribute to  form  the  full  and  proper  melody  of  speech.  "VYe 
proceed  to  show  further,  that  the  Diatonic  Melody,  this  Ground- 
work of  all  other  intonation,  employs  the  wave  of  the  second  as 
an  important,  indeed  an  essential  constituent  of  its  grave  and 
dignified  character.  The  reader  has  already  learned  that  long 
quantity  is  necessary  for  executing  the  wider  intervals  and 
waves.  When  therefore  the  vivid  expression  of  these  forms  of 
pitch,  is  required  on  the  diatonic  Ground,  it  can  only  be  effected 
on  prolonged  syllables.  But  as  the  plain  melody  of  narrative  or 
description  does  not,  along  Avith  its  dignified  character,  convey 
any  remarkable  feeling  or  passion,  there  should  be  some  means, 
different  both  from  the  wider  intervals  and  waves  ;  and  from  the 
simple  rise  and  fall  of  the  second,  which  we  have  shown  are 
suitable  only  to  short  quantities,  in  a  quick  and  '  tripping' 
speech.  These  means  are  a  protracted  quantity,  and  the  wave 
of  the  second,  in  its  direct  and  inverted,  and  sometimes  its 
double  form.  In  a  previous  section,  there  is  an  illustration, 
from  Paradise  Lost,  of  the  want  of  sufficient  length  for  the 
purpose  of  expression,  in  certain  accented  and  emphatic  sylla- 
bles. I  here  use  that  extract  for  exemplifying  the  wave  of  the 
second :  where  the  simple  rise  and  fall  of  this  interval  is  set  on 
all  the  short  and  unaccented  syllables  ;  and  the  direct  or  inverted 
wave,  on  all  that  are  at  the  same  time  of  long  quantity,  and 
accented  and  emphatic. 

High        on        a    throne    of  roy al     state,    Tyhich       far 


^•^-•^  ^•^-^v-e'^ 


Out — shone  the  wealth      of        Or mus      and       of    Ind,         • 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND.  283 

Or        where      the        gor — geous        East    -with     rich — est    hand 


4  <^ 

%  ^^  * 

A       A 

4ir^r^ 

\ 

T    \ 

Show ers 

on      her 

Kings    bar- 

-ba — ric 

pearl    and 

gold, 

<^- 

•r^- 

-«^^ 

4  4 

€^4 

9 

T 

Sa tan 

ex 

—alt ed 

sat. 

4 

-V 

-5^ 

w 

^ 

This  is  a  fine  passage  of  descriptive  poetry :  and  the  intona- 
tion here  directed,  seems,  to  me  at  least,  appropriate  to  its 
character.  There  is  great  grandeur  in  the  idea  of  the  Occasion  ; 
while  the  language  is  richly  associative,  and  the  comparisons 
striking  and  magnificent.  But  the  description  is  not  prompted 
by  that  state  of  mind  which  we  distinguished,  as  feeling  or 
passion :  nor  indeed  should  it  excite  that  condition  in  the  mind 
of  an  audience.  The  subject  is  presented  by  the  narrator,  for 
dignified  and  grave  attention.  We  are  invited  to  look  up,  and 
behold  this  super-human  greatness,  and  the  splendor  surrounding 
its  'bad  eminence.'  It  is  however,  only  the  Still-life  of  the 
imperial  Throne,  and  has  not  as  yet  aroused  a  passion.  The 
poet,  without  himself  stooping  to  overcome  the  beholder  with  the 
vulgar  disturbance  of  wonder,  has  raised  his  fixed  attention,  to 
the  refined  and  reflective  sentiment  of  admiration.  We  then 
require  no  passionate  intonation ;  no  wider  rising  and  falling 
thirds  or  fifths  or  octaves ;  no  semitones ;  no  wider  waves ;  no 
tremors,  nor  percussive  accents ;  in  short,  no  excessive  nor 
extraordinary  use  of  quality,  time,  force,  abruptness  or  pitch. 
The  diagram  shows  the  simple  upward  or  the  downward  con- 
crete, on  all  the  short  and  unaccented  syllables ;  and  the  direct 
or  inverted  wave  of  the  second,  on  the  long  and  accented.  The 
feeble  cadence  is  set  on  the  word  gold^  as  this  terminates  the 


284  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND.  ' 

description  of  the  Throne;  but  not  the  sentence,  which  is 
finally  closed  by  the  falling  triad :  and  this  is  made  more  com- 
plete, by  the  radical  descent  of  a  third  on  the  syllable  tan, 
forming  thus  the  Prepared  cadence.  I  have  endeavored  so 
to  arrange  the  intonation,  as  to  give  variety  to  the  current  of 
the  melody.  For  although  the  prevailing  phrase  is  the  mono- 
tone ;  with  its  radicals, —  whether  the  concrete  rises  or  .falls, 
or  the  wave  is  direct  or  inverted, —  upon  a  level  line  of 
pitch ;  yet  this  line  is  broken  occasionally  by  the  rising  and 
falling  ditone.  The  monotone  as  here  used,  is  strictly  appro- 
priate to  a  deliberate  and  solemn  style,  when  this  is  the  reigning 
spirit  of  narrative  and  descriptive  discourse.  And  though  we 
cannot,  according  to  our  distinction  between  plain  thought  and 
sentiment,  speak  of  the  expression  of  the  monotone,  yet  we 
perceive,  it  has  a  remarkable  character  of  its  own.* 

I  am  left  so  alone  with  my  subject,  that  I  like  even  to  ima- 
gine a  eompanion.  I  therefore  suppose  the  reader  may  with 
me,  recollect,  that  the  immediate  succession  of  the  rising  and 
the  falling  ditone,  forms  what  was  called  the  phrase  of  Alterna- 
tion. When  this  is  employed  in  a  current  melody,  the  constant 
variation  of  the  radical  pitch,  together  with  a  short  syllabic 
time,  and  a  use  of  the  simple  concrete,  broadly  distinguishes 
its  effect,  from  that  which  employs  a  long  quantity  and  the 
monotone.  The  following  notation  of  the  description  of  Abdiel's 
encounter  with  Satan,  in  Milton's  Sixth  book,  will  illustrate  the 
character,  we  must  not  call  it  the  expression  of  the  alternate 
melodial  phrase. 

•Sometimes  the  nature  of  a  thing  is  more  clearly  viewed,  in  the  broad  light 
of  its  contrary.  Let  our  extract  then  be  read  in  the  Falsette,  with  every  kind 
of  interval  and  wave,  mingling  as  if  they  had  been  given  us,  only  to  run  up  and 
down  the  voice,  and  tumble  over  syllables,  without  a  steady  regard  to  sense  or 
soul.  Such  outrages  always  suggest  contrasts;  and  we  close  our  ears  upon  the 
nuisance,  to  imagine  the  lines,  delivered, —  in  a  full  orotund,  with  a  well  adjusted 
intonation  of  the  diatonic  melody, —  by  a  Garrick  or  a  Booth.  It  may  perhaps 
be  too  ludicrous  an  illustration,  even  for  a  note:  But  just  think  of  that  solemn 
Anthem,  •  Before  Jehovah's  Awful  Throne,'  sung  by  a  single  Soprano,  with  the 
accompaniment  of  a  fife  and  a  violin. 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND.  285 

So       say — ing,      a        no — ble       stroke     he        lif — ted    high, 


d    ^  m    d   d      ^ 

/  "^    •  «  ^ 

w           m    9    9 

•         ^^  • 

Which  hung    not,     but     so         swift 

with      tem — pest       fell 

d    ^  4    ^   *^    " 

•    ^  n    ^ 

•      V  • 

On       the     proud    crest      of      Sa — 

--tan,       that        no    sight, 

^d^dd^ 

•I    ^-^^ 

Nor    mo — -tion         of      swift    thought,   less     could   his      shield, 


^-J-^^-JT^^*^-^ 


•L^^ 


Such 

ru 

— in        in ter — cept. 

i 

iT  d 

w 

^ 

"       «r  - 

On  comparing  the  two  preceding  diagrams,  "we  find  a 
predominance  of  monotones,  in  the  former,  and  of  the  alterna- 
tion in  the  latter :  the  line  of  the  monotone  being  broken  by  an 
occasional  ditone ;  and  the  alternation,  by  an  occasional  mono- 
tone. In  the  last  case,  the  spirit  of  the  description,  is  carried 
out  on  this  varying  intonation ;  and  a  Milton-like  propriety  and 
taste,  have  furnished  a  phraseology  suitable  to  that  spirit. 
Consistently,  as  it  seems  to  me,  with  the  language,  and  with  the 
rapid  energy  of  the  occasion,  I  have  set  the  wider  interval  of 
the  third,  on  but  three  syllables  ;  and  the  wave  of  the  second,  only 
on  four:  nor  should  these  intonations  have  more  than  a  limited 
quantity.     A    feeble    cadence    is    set  on  the  last    syllable  of 


286  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND. 

saying:  since  this  phrase,  as  the  sequel  to  an  antecedent  decla- 
ration, is  slightly  terminative.  All  the  rest  of  the  intonations 
are  simple  rising  and  falling  concretes,  and  are  thus  accomo- 
modated  to  the  drift  of  the  description.  The  earnest  purpose 
of  the  action  does  not  allow  a  full  and  reposing  cadence.  I 
have  therefore  used  a  tripartite  form,  and  given  the  first  two  con- 
stituents, rising  concretes.  There  is  a  wider  range  of  pitch  in  the 
successions  of  the  melody ;  that  is,  the  radicals  ascend  higher 
on  the  staflF,  and  thus  produce  a  lively  contrast  with  each  other. 
Now  all  these  conditions  give  to  the  lines  before  us,  a  character 
very  difi'erent  from  that  of  the  former  example.  A  prevalence 
of  the  monotone  here,  might  perhaps  represent  the  dignified 
courage,  and  calm  security  of  an  aggressor  confident  of  success  : 
but  it  would  be  misapplied  and  faded  coloring,  for  the  ideal 
picture  of  hurried  watchfulness  and  dreadful  expectation,  which 
the  description  of  the  huge  impetus  is  calculated  to  excite.  It 
is  true,  the  above  lines  are  merely  descriptive  of  a  super-human 
action.  But  it  seems  to  be  a  rule  of  sympathy  in  such  cases, 
that  he  who  describes,  should  to  a  degree,  take  part  in  the  sen- 
timents excited  by  his  own  verbal  picture  of  the  scene. 

The  former  of  the  above  illustrations,  is  purely  in  the  dia- 
tonic melody :  and  though  the  latter  is  strictly  descriptive,  still 
its  character  either  calls  for,  or  admits  the  rising  and  falling 
thirds  assigned  to  it :  while  at  the  same  time,  it  affords  an  exam- 
ple of  the  introduction  of  wider  intervals  into  the  diatonic  cur- 
rent. Others  may  think,  that  still  wider  intonations  might  be 
employed.  Let  it  be  as  they  wish.  I  am  endeavoring  to 
instruct  them  in  the  principles  of  an  art,  not  to  direct  them  in 
its  practice.  In  any  case,  the  last  example  may  serve  to  show 
how  difficult  it  is,  nicely  to  divide  the  expressive,  from  the 
now-expressive  in  speech. 

What  is  here  said  of  the  use  of  the  direct  wave  of  the  second, 
in  adding  dignity  and  solemnity  to  a  diatonic  melody,  is  also  true 
of  the  inverted  Avave.  For  if  the  reader  is  able  to  make  the  con- 
tinuous rise  and  fall  through  a  tone,  or  reversely  the  fall  and 
rise,  on  a  literal  element,  or  word,  he  will  observe  a  difference  in 
the  effect.     But  each  case  will  be  equally  destitute  of  the  striking 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SECOND.""  287 

intonation  of  the  wider  intervals,  whether  upward  or  downward. 
Thus  these  two  contrary  forms  of  the  wave  of  the  second,  with- 
out adding  any  peculiar  expression  to  the  melody,  give  variety  to 
the  intonation  of  dignified  and  impressive  discourse. 

I  am  not  aware  that  the  double-equal  wave  of  the  second  has 
a  character  different  from  that  of  its  single  form,  except  what 
may  arise  from  extending  the  quantity  of  syllables.  Indeed  an 
unusual  protraction  of  quantity  in  the  diatonic  melody,  instinc- 
tively produces  the  double  wave  ;  since  the  voice  may  take  this 
serpentine  line,  through  the  second,  without  producing  any  un- 
})leasant  snarl,  similar  to  that  of  the  double  wave  on  some  of  the 
wider  intervals. 

There  is  what  we  called  a  Continued  wave,  or  a  progress  of 
the  line  of  contrary  flexures  beyond  the  term  of  three  constituents. 
It  is  only  to  the  time  of  an  equal  wave  of  the  second  in  a  dia- 
tonic melody,  and  of  a  semitone  in  the  chromatic,  that  this  con- 
tinued extension,  if  at  all,  is  to  be  added.  For  should  some  extra- 
ordinary expression  of  solemnity,  upon  an  indefinite  syllable,  re- 
quire an  umisually  protracted  quantity ;  and  should  the  time  of  the 
syllable  not  be  exhausted,  when  the  voice  has  passed  through  the 
three  constituents  of  the  double  wave,  it  must  if  still  continued, 
necessarily  be  carried-on  either  in  the  note  of  song,  or  through 
farther  flexures  of  the  wave.  When  it  takes  the  course  of  the 
flexures,  the  bad  effect  of  the  former  case  will  be  avoided :  nor 
will  this  multiplied  repetition  of  the  rise  and  fall,  through  this 
small  interval  of  a  tone,  produce  any  positive  or  unpleasant  im- 
pression.* 

I  have  ascribed  an  importance  to  the  subject  of  this  section, 
because  it  is  the  foundation  of  a  very  general  principle  in  elocu- 
tion.    The  reader  will  now  perhaps  admit  Our  distinction  between 

*  It  may  be  asked  here,  why,  if  the  voice  can  be  thus  prolonged  in  speech, 
should  the  length  of  syllables,  as  stated  in  our  fourth  section,  be  restricted  ?  The 
extreme  prolongation,  in  the  above  case,  is  made  on  a  single  tonic  or  subtonic 
clement:  whereas  proper  syllables  are  the  product  df  certain  combinations  of  all 
the  elements;  and  these  by  their  position,  in  our  language,  arrest  the  syllabic 
impulse.  The  syllables  all  and  ame  might  indeed  be  continued  during  the  whole 
term  of  expiration ;  but  when  made  in  these  continuous  diatonic  flexures,  if  at 
all  true  syllables,  they  are  only  exceptions  to  our  general  laws  of  syllabication. 


288  THE  EQUAL  WA.VE  OF  THE  SECOND. 

the  plain  melody  formed  by  a  varied  rise  and  fall  of  the  voice 
through  the  interval  of  a  tone,  and  that  formed  by  the  occasional 
introduction  of  other  and  Avidcr  intervals,  producing  what  was  dis- 
tinctively called  Expression.  Now,  very  few  speakers  are  able 
to  execute  this  plain  melody,  in  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  its 
diatonic  construction.  Some  constantly  use  throughout  their 
current,  the  rise  of  a  third,  a  fifth,  or  a  semitone  :  or  give  every 
emphatic  syllable  in  an  impressive  form  of  the  wave.  Perhaps 
these  faults  arise  from  an  ambitious  attempt  to  effect  a  greater 
degree  of  dignified  expression,  or  variety  in  the  simple  melody, 
than  the  speaker  is  able  to  accomplish  by  the  second  alone.  In 
this  attempt  he  employs  some  of  the  wide  and  exceptionable  in- 
tervals, and  by  their  continued  repetition,  produces  a  false  into- 
nation and  a  disgusting  monotony.  For  these  expressive  inter- 
vals so  remarkably  affect  the  ear,  that,  unduly  repeated,  their 
identity  becomes  conspicuous  and  offensive.  Whereas  the  simple 
and  unobtrusive  second,  maybe  frequently  repeated  without  pro- 
ducing a  like  disagreeable  uniformity  :  since  changes  of  the  sim- 
ple rising  and  falling  second,  of  the  direct  and  inverted  equal 
wave  of  this  interval,  together  with  a  judicious  use  of  time,  and 
pitch,  afford  sufficient  variety  to  the  diatonic  melody,  without 
destroying  its  characteristic  plainness. 

No  one  without  inquiry  on  this  subject,  can  be  aware  of  the 
unpretending  yet  dignified  force,  the  diversified  succession,  and 
severe  simplicity  of  the  diatonic  melody,  when  conducted  on  the 
principles  of  the  radical  change  formerly  laid  down  ;  and  varied 
by  the  appropriate  disposition  of  the  single  rise  and  fall,  the  di- 
rect and  inverted  wave,  the  degrees  of  quantity,  and  certain 
forms  of  stress  to  be  described  in  a  future  section.  Upon  the 
simple  level,  so  to  speak,  of  this  melody,  the  occasional  expres- 
sion of  the  wider  intervals  comes  with  all  the  effect  that  variety 
of  impulse  and  measurable  contrast  must  necessarily  produce. 
Whereas  he  who  is  constantly  dealing  out  his  semitones,  thirds, 
fifths,  and  octaves,  allows  no  repose  to  the  ear ;  and  when  the 
real  occasion  for  their  expression  occurs,  the  sensibility  to  their 
emphatic  application  is  exhausted. 


THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SEMITONE.  289 


SECTION  XXX. 

Of  the  Equal  Wave  of  the  Semitone. 

The  chromatic  melody  was  formerly  described  as  a  succession 
of  radical  and  vanishing  semitones.  But  it  was  even  then  stated, 
there  is  a  continuation  of  the  rising  into  the  falling  interval,  for 
the  purpose  of  repeating  the  plaintive  impression  of  the  single 
concrete,  and  for  adding  length  to  the  quantity  of  syllables. 
This  wave  is  remarkably  distinguished  by  its  peculiar  and  attract- 
tive  expression.  Its  direct,  inverted,  and  double  forms  have 
necessarily,  from  repeating  the  interval,  greater  plaintiveness 
and  dignity  than  the  simple  rise ;  and  at  the  same  time  furnish 
means  for  diversifying  the  current  melody. 

A  mingling  of  the  reverse  forms  of  the  wave,  is  required  in 
the  chromatic  melody  ;  for  the  continued  repetition  of  this  re- 
markable interval,  and  the  frequent  occurrence  of  the  phrase  of 
the  monotone,  make  it  desirable  to  vary  the  impression  of  the 
melody,  without  destroying  the  essential  nature  of  its  plaintive 
constituents.  Now  this  is  accomplished  in  a  degree,  by  an  appro- 
priate disposition  of  the  direct  and  inverted  wave  ;  these  contrary 
movements  having  a  difference  of  character,  perceptible  on  com- 
parative trial :  for  the  effect  of  the  simple  rising  interval,  being 
different  from  that  of  the  falling,  the  varied  final  constituent 
gives  its  character,  respectively,  to  the  reverse  forms  of  the  semi- 
tonic  wave. 

It  may  be  remarked,  on  the  subject  of  this  and  the  preceding 
section,  that  whenever  a  good  reader  expressively  prolongs  the 
quantity  of  his  syllables,  and  surely  no  one  can  read  well  without 
this  use  of  quantity,  he  does  instinctively  employ  these  waves,  in 
all  deliberate  and  solemn  utterance :  Avhile  on  the  other  hand, 
his  voice  assumes  the  simple  rise  and  fall  of  these  intervals,  with- 
out the  continuous  flexure,  in  delivering  those  gayer  and  more 


290  THE  EQUAL  WAVE  OF  THE  SEMITONE. 

energetic  sentiments  that  naturally  suggest  a  shorter  time  of  syl- 
lables, and  a  more  rapid  pronunciation. 

If  these  then  are  the  spontaneous  and  satisfactory  efforts  of  the 
voice,  on  two  such  important  points,  it  may  be  asked,  "why  we 
should  labor,  so  deeply  in  search  of  principles,  that  brought  into 
practice,  would  be  no  more  than  the  fulfillment  of  the  instinct  of 
speech.  I  have  said,  these  points  of  intonation  are  accomplished 
by  a  good  reader,  if  there  can  be  a  good  reader,  without  the  edu- 
cative means  of  science ;  one  to  whom  nature  has  given  a  mind, 
and  sensibility,  to  assume  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  an  author, 
and  the  vocal  power  to  represent  them  with  propriety :  by  one 
who,  when  he  feels  the  uneasiness  of  error,  will  give  even  pain- 
ful industry  for  its  correction ;  and  who,  in  his  self-directed 
labors,  is  unconsciously  following  the  order,  and  effecting  much 
of  the  purpose  of  scientific  analysis  and  rule. 

But  how  shall  he  find  out,  or  preserve  his  way,  who  has  not 
this  native  grace  of  improvement;  who  searches  after  right, 
without  knowing  what  is  wrong ;  and  who  copies  both  the  faults 
and  merits  of  an  individual  example,  instead  of  reaching  forth, 
under  the  direction  of  broad-founded  precepts,  to  gather  excel- 
lence by  discriminative  selection.  It  is  to  such  a  person  that  a 
development  of  the  principles  of  speech  becomes  indispensable. 
To  him  the  fulness  of  history,  the  strictness  of  definition,  and 
the  diffusive  light  of  system,  afford  those  aids,  which  the  eagle- 
eye  of  observation,  and  that  sure-winged  thrift  of  genius,  which 
sometimes  bears  itself  from  instinct,  up  towards  science,  may  not 
so  strictly  require. 


THE  WAVE  OF  UNEQUAL  INTERVALS.         291 


SECTION  XXXI. 
Of  the  Wave  of  Unequal  Intervals. 

This  term  denotes  a  vocal  movement,  hj  contrary  flexures, 
with  constituents  of  different  extent.  Thus,  if  the  voice  rises 
through  a  second,  and  then  in  continuation  falls  through  a  tliird ; 
or  falls  through  a  given  interval  and  rises  through  a  different 
one,  it  is  called  the  Unequal  Wave. 

It  will  at  once  be  perceived,  there  is  a  direct  and  an  inverted, 
a  single  and  a  double  form  of  this  wave ;  while  the  possible 
combinations  of  its  constituents  are  so  various,  that  the  com- 
plex enumeration  of  them  would  be  altogether  useless,  except 
the  expression  of  each  of  their  permutations  could  be  pointed 
out.  But  the  recognized  varieties  of  its  expression  bear  a  very 
small  proportion  to  its  multiplied  species.  It  embraces  wonder, 
positiveness,  and  interrogation,  in  different  degrees,  according 
to  the  extent  of  the  interval  and  the  direction  of  its  last  con- 
stituent. I  am  not  however  able  to  assign  to  the  unequal  wave, 
in  its  various  forms,  any  general  characteristic  of  expression, 
except  that  of  strongly  marked  scorn,  and  other  feelings  of  a 
like  nature  and  force.  These  sentiments  are  in  a  slight  degree 
conveyed  by  the  curling  of  the  Equal  wave,  and  even  by  the 
simple  rising  and  falling  fifth,  and  octave,  when  there  is  much 
stress,  or  an  aspiration  laid  upon  their  vanishing  extremes.  But 
the  most  striking  sign  of  contempt,  and  of  similar  sentiments, 
consists  in  a  wide  variation  of  the  constituent  intervals  of  the 
wave ;  especially  if  the  wave  is  double,  with  the  intonation 
strongly  aspirated,  or  with  a  guttural  vibration  on  its  final 
concrete. 

This  wave  of  unequal  intervals  is  employed  for  the  stronger,  and 
generally  exaggerated  passions  of  the  drama,  and  in  the  peevish- 
ness, and  colloquial  cant  of  common  life  :  but  it  should  be  rarely 
used  in  the  moderate  temper  of  a  greater  part  of  written  dis- 


292  THE  WAVE  OF  UNEQUAL  INTERVALS. 

course.  It  has  a  vulgar  earnestness,  and  a  quaint  familiarity, 
that  render  it  adverse  to  a  grave  or  graceful  design  of  speech. 

When  the  expression  of  scorn  is  required  on  an  occasional 
word,  in  a  current  melody  of  dignified  or  solemn  utterance,  it  is, 
under  the  direction  of  feeling  and  taste,  generally  made  by  the 
proper  use  of  stress  and  aspiration,  on  the  simple. rise  or  fall  of 
the  third  or  fifth ;  for  this  conveys  a  more  moderate  degree  of 
the  sentiment ;  at  furthest,  in  such  a  case,  the  expression  is  not 
carried  beyond  the  aspirated  structure  of  the  single-equal  wave. 

There  is  a  peculiar  expression  of  the  unequal  wave,  described 
under  the  head  of  Chromatic  melody,  which  forms  an  exception 
to  the  general  characteristic  of  scorn,  above  ascribed  to  it.  I 
refer  to  its  employment,  for  the  purpose  of  chromatic  interroga- 
tion. In  this  case  it  is  necessary  to  give,  on  the  same  syllable, 
an  intonation  both  of  plaintiveness  and  of  the  question  ;  and 
this  can  be  accomplished,  only  by  subjoining  to  the  last  con- 
stituent of  the  equal-direct  wave  of  the  semitone,  or  to  the 
last  constituent  of  its  double-inverted  form,  the  rise  of  the  third, 
or  fifth,  or  octave.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  here,  that  this,  and 
other  forms  of  the  unequal  wave,  cease  to  be  expressive  of  scorn, 
by  merely  withholding  the  aspiration  for  them,  and  by  avoiding 
the  guttural  vibration  on  their  last  constituent. 

The  unequal  wave  may  form  the  cadence  of  a  chromatic 
melody,  on  one  syllable.  In  this  case  the  voice  rises  through 
the  interval  of  a  semitone,  and  then  in  continuation  descends 
concretely  a  third  to  the  close.  This  intonation  however,  on 
account  of  its  peculiar  expression,  is  unsuitable  to  the  general 
character  of  repose  required  in  the  cadence.  From  the  nature 
of  its  constituents,  this  form  of  the  wave,  particularly  if  enforced 
by  stress,  bears  the  sentiment  of  plaintive  or  querulous  surprise: 
and  consequently,  is  admissible  on  the  last  long  quantity  of  a  chro- 
matic sentence,  only  when  it  conveys  this  sentiment.  Should 
the  stress  be  increased  with  an  aspirated  close,  it  would  give  the 
expression  of  querulous  scorn. 

As  the  wave,  under  every  form,  especially  requires  syllables 
of  indefinite  time,  it  is  obvious,  Avhy  long  quantities  are  neces- 
sary for  reaching  full  dignity  of  speech,  since  these  alone  are 


THE  WAVE  OF  UNEQUAL  INTERVALS.  293 

capable  of  bearing  the  wave  ;  dignity  of  expression  being  an 
effect  of  the  wave  of  wider  intervals,  on  emphatic  words,  and  of 
the  wave  of  the  second  and  semitone,  in  the  respective  currents 
of  the  diatonic  and  chromatic  melody.  With  the  light  of  this 
principle,  the  reader  may  see  on  what  defensible  ground,  it  was 
formerly  maintained,  that  the  majestic  movement  of  the  first 
line  of  the  second  book  of  Paradise  Lost,  was  shocked  by  the 
limited  and  insufficient  quantity  of  the  word  state. 

High  on  a  tbrone  of  Royal  state  which  far 

All  the  accented  syllables  of  this  line,  except  state,  are  of 
indefinite  time,  and  will  bear  the  equal  wave  of  the  second. 
The  same  is  true  of  nearly  all  the  syllables  in  the  three  succeed- 
ing lines  of  the  passage :  and  with  the  exceptions  here  alluded 
to,  the  whole  is  admirably  fitted,  by  its  time,  for  the  vocal 
representation  of  this  magnificent  description,  by  the  Poet  of 
unsurpassed  Sublimity. 

From  inattention  to  this  subject  of  quantity,  it  often  happens 
that  poets  use  syllables  of  immutable  time,  in  emphatic  places 
that  call  for  the  expression  of  the  wave.  The  following  exam- 
ple, cited  in  the  eleventh  section,  will  now  be  better  understood. 

And  practised  distances  to  cringe,  not  fight. 

The  sentiment  of  scornful  exultation,  conveyed  by  the  words 
not  fight,  here  requires  a  form  of  the  unequal  wave  on  each ; 
but  from  the  limitation  of  their  quantity,  this  movement  cannot 
be  employed,  without  a  remarkable  departure  from  correct  pro- 
nunciation. 

In  speaking  of  the  various  ascending  and  descending  concrete 
intervals,  it  was  shown  that  a  similar,  though  diminished  effect 
of  intonation  is  produced  by  the  leap  or  change  of  the  voice, 
from  the  radical  of  a  concrete  to  the  pitch  of  its  vanish,  without 
passing  through  the  intermediate  space.  Now  since  the  wave  is 
only  a  junction  of  the  concretes  of  its  constituents,  it  might 
naturally  be  supposed  that  some  expression  analogous  to  the 
effect  of  a  concrete  wave,  may  be  produced  by  radical  changes 
to  the  extremes  of  its  flexures.     Such  a  correspondence  may  be 


294  THE  WAVE  OF  UNEQUAL  INTERVALS. 

effected  on  some  of  the  forms  of  the  wave.  Thus  in  the  case 
of  the  immutable  words  not  fight,  an  approximation  may  be 
made  towards  the  required  expression  of  the  continuous  con- 
crete, by  giving  not,  at  a  discrete  fifth  above  the  line  of  the 
current  melody ;  then  returning  discretely  to  that  line  on  fight ; 
and  finally,  rising  on  fight,  from  that  line,  with  the  rapid  con- 
crete of  a  third:  thus  producing  a  kind  of  discrete  imitation  of 
the  direct-double-unequal  wave  of  the  fifth  and  third.  For  if 
we  suppose  the  radical  of  cringe,  to  be  on  a  line  with  the  cur- 
rent melody,  and  its  concrete  to  be  carried  from  that  radical 
place,  through  the  points  of  the  rising  and  falling  discrete  fifth 
above  mentioned,  it  will,  with  the  rapid  vanish  of  the  third,  form 
such  a  wave.  This  discrete  intonation  by  the  wider  intervals, 
comes  much  nearer  to  the  expression  of  contempt,  designed  by 
the  exultation  of  Satan,  than  can  possibly  be  reached  on  the 
triad  of  the  cadence,  to  which  the  voice  is  prone,  in  this  case, 
from  the  short  time  of  the  syllables,  and  their  position  at  the 
close  of  a  sentence. 

Another  example,  given  in  the  eleventh  section,  may  still  further 
illustrate  this  design  to  convey,  by  radical  changes,  the  expres- 
sion of  a  wave  of  equal  intervals,  when  a  limited  syllabic  time, 
renders  its  continuous  or  concrete  movement  impracticable. 

Faithful  to  whom?     To  thy  rebellious  crew? 
Army  of  Fiends,  Jit  body  to  fit  head. 

The  words  here  marked  in  italics,  convey  the  sentiment  of 
admiration,  and  scorn,  and  should  be  intonated  by  an  alternate 
skip  of  radical  pitch  through  the  rise  and  fall  of  a  fifth.  That 
is,  with  fit  on  the  line  of  the  current  melody,  take  bod,  by 
radical  skip,  a  fifth  above  fit;  y  again  at  the  current  line,  a 
fifth  below  hod ;  to  also  on  the  current  line ;  fit  a  fifth  above 
this  last ;  and  finally  head  a  fifth  below,  at  the  current  line : 
observing,  that  with  the  radical  skips,  there  is  still  a  feeble  and 
rapid  downward  concrete  on  all  the  syllables.  I  offer  in  the 
following  diagram,  two  notations ;  one  of  the  discrete  changes 
proposed  for  the  Poet's  phrase ;  and  another,  with  the  same  num- 
ber of  words  taken,  as  well  as  I  could  compose  them,  to  represent 


THE  WAVE  OP  UNEQUAL  INTERVALS.         295 

something  like  the  spirit  of  the  short-timed  phraseology ;  and 
with  sufficient  quantity  to  bear  the  concrete,  and  the  wave. 


Fit        bod-y 

to     fit    head. 

Well      paired  with  all   thy     sins! 

A                        ^ 

4ft           ^               ^ 

^ 

"V 

(•      ^   ^              ^ 

M          m. 

%       ^ 

^^^=t^«-.-r 

W                  ^k 

The  First  of  these  notations  is  described  above.  In  the 
Second,  the  word  well  has  the  inverted  wave  of  the  fifth,  with 
its  rising  constituent,  expressive  of  a  sort  of  admiration,  ironical 
it  must  be,  at  Satan's  preposterous  claims  to  an  honorable 
faithfulness.  I  say  nothing  of  a  slight  tremor  on  this  rising 
constituent,  to  show  the  exulting  scorn  of  Gabriel ;  nor  of  any 
form  or  degree  of  quality  and  stress,  for  the  impressive  display 
of  the  whole  phrase.  After  the  lighter  sneer  has  thus  been 
intimated,  the  rest  of  the  words  convey  a  positive  assurance  on 
the  part  of  the  speaker,  of  the  truth  of  the  contemptuous  com- 
parison, and  should  therefore  have  the  conclusive  intonation  of 
the  downward  intervals.  Paired  has  the  falling  fifth :  with,  the 
feeble  and  falling  rapid  concrete  of  a  third,  on  the  line  of  the 
current  melody:  all,  a  positive  downward  fifth,  from  the  hight 
of  that  interval  above  the  current :  thy,  a  direct  unequal  wave 
of  the  second  and  third ;  and  sins,  a  feeble  cadence  to  close  the 
phrase.  Now  in  all  this,  there  is  but  the  plain  intelligible  up 
and  down  of  the  voice,  without  assistance  from  any  occult 
quality,  emanating  from  the  soul,  that  has  never  yet  been  seen, 
scented,  touched,  tasted  nor  heard.  In  the  first  of  these  ways  only, 
that  is  by  marking,  the  extremes  of  those  intervals,  which,  upon 
extendible  syllabic  quantity  would  be  given  as  a  wave,  can  that 
open  eye  of  wonder,  and  snarling  of  scorn,  be  substitutively 
executed.  But  even  with  every  assistance  from  the  radical  skip, 
the  reader,  if  he  possesses  the  soul  of  elocution,  must  still  find  it 
imprisoned  within  these  words. 

We  have  had  occasion  to  apply  the  term  simple  or  single,  to 
the  un-flexed  concrete,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  wave.  The 
above  example  of  intonation  on  immutable  syllables,  suggests 


296  RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  MELODY. 

the  antitlietic  use  of  the  terms,  concrete,  and  —  inconsistent  as 
it  may  appear, — discrete  wave. 

Let  me  here  recall  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  subject 
of  syllabication.  It  was  shown  how  the  construction  of  sylla- 
bles is  governed  by  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement.  It  was 
likewise  stated,  that  the  course  of  syllabic  sound  is  always 
limited  by  the  extent  of  the  upward  and  downward  concrete  ; 
but  that  the  prolonged  and  perfect  syllable  is  practicable  upon 
another  form  of  pitch.  We  are  now  prepared  to  hear  that  the 
unbroken  current  of  the  voice,  may  be  carried  through  the  con- 
trary flexures  of  the  wave,  without  destroying  that  singleness  of 
impression  which  forms  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a  syllable. 

Enough  was  said  on  the  subject  of  the  alphabetic  elements,  to 
explain  this  in  a  few  words.  The  wave  is  a  continuous  sound,  and 
consequently  aifords  no  opportunity  in  its  course,  for  the  outset 
of  a  new  radical,  which,  with  its  following  vanish  would  produce 
another  syllable.  For  it  was  shown  that  an  interruption  of  the 
concrete,  whether  made  wilfully  by  pause,  or  necessarily  by  the 
occurrence  of  an  abrupt  or  an  atonic  element,  is  unavoidably  the 
end  of  one  syllable,  and  the  preface  to  the  beginning  of  another. 

After  the  description,  thus  far  given  of  the  individual  func- 
tions of  the  speaking  voice,  we  may  take  a  more  comprehensive 
view  of  the  subject,  by  Recapitulating  the  account  of  these 
functions,  as  they  appear  in  the  connected  current  of  discourse : 
and  thereby  show  them  in  the  joined  relations  of  synthesis,  as 
well  as  in  the  separate  individuality  of  decomposition. 

We  speak  with  two  purposes.  First,  to  communicate  mere 
ideas,  or  thoughts,  apart  from  passion.  And  Second,  to  express 
our  feeling  or  sentiments.  According  to  that  difference,  the 
voice  should  have  a  different  set  of  signs,  for  each  of  these 
purposes :  and  this,  upon  inquiry  into  nature,  is  found  to  be 
the  case.  But  as  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  draw  a 
strictly  dividing  line  between  mere  thoughts,  and  what  are  called 
sentiments ;  so  the  vocal  signs,  severally  representing  them, 
cannot  be  clearly  divided,  in  arrangement.  I  have  however, 
in  previous  parts  of  this  essay,  marked  out  a  practical  distinc- 


RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  MELODY.  297 

tion,  founded  on  the  more  obvious  difference  of  the  cases.  For 
plain  narrative  and  simple  thought,  we  employ  the  Diatonic 
melody. 

This  melody,  consists  of  a  simple  rise  through  the  concrete  of 
a  tone,  A^aried  by  the  occasional  use  of  the  downward  tone  ; 
with  a  radical  pitch  changing  through  its  several  diatonic 
phrases ;  and  a  termination  of  the  melody  by  the  descent  of  the 
cadence.  The  grace  and  refinement  of  speech,  in  this  case,  is 
largely  dependent  on  that  construction  of  the  radical  and  vanish, 
which  displays  a  full  and  well-marked  opening  of  the  concrete, 
and  a  gradual  diminution  of  its  force.  These  are  the  constitu- 
ents employed,  and  this  their  disposition,  for  reading  plain 
narrative  or  description :  and  generally,  if  such  subjects,  as  the 
definitions  of  astronomy,  title-deeds  of  property,  and  gazette 
advertisements,  are  not  read  for  the  most  part,  in  thia  style  of 
intonation,  the  effect  will  be  unsuitable  to  their  passionless 
thoughts. 

In  the  above  cases,  as  well  as  in  others,  requiring  the  diatonic 
melody,  the  movement  is  supposed  to  be  with  a  tripping  step  and 
a  short  quantity.  If  however,  the  thoughts  should  have  a  digni- 
fied importance,  an  increase  of  quantity  in  the  accented  sylla- 
bles, together  with  a  general  slowness  of  the  time  will  be 
assumed :  the  concrete  still  continuing  in  its  simple,  though 
somewhat  more  protracted  form. 

Should  this  deliberate  character  be  further  raised  into  solemn 
dignity,  the  melody  will  assume  the  mingled  progression  of 
the  direct  and  the  inverted-equal  wave  of  the  second.  Much  of 
the  Church-service  should  be  read  with  this  plain  protracted  into- 
nation. It  conveys  in  full,  the  sentiments  of  august  composure, 
solemnity,  and  veneration.  A  proper  management  of  the  con- 
trary courses  of  the  waves,  together  with  a  change  of  radical  pitch, 
gives  sufficient  variety  to  the  melody :  while  it  avoids  the  force- 
ful impression  of  wider  intervals,  that  would  overrule  the  self- 
possessed  ease  and  grave  simplicity  of  this  unobtrusive  into- 
nation. This  style  of  melody,  includes  the  means  for  producing 
that  graceful  dignity  of  voice,  which  is  in  vain  attempted  through 
the  breadth  of  '  o'b  and  '  aw's  in  mouthing ;  through  strong 
20 


298  RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  MELODY. 

percussive  accents  mth  long  pauses ;  the  waves  of  the  wider 
intervals ;  and  that  heartless  affectation  which  passes  "without 
motive  or  rule,  in  unexpected  transition  from  the  strongest 
cushion-beating  emphasis,  or  stage  vociferation,  to  the  attempted 
significancy  of  a  mysterious  whisper. 

Although  the  diatonic  melody  i^  represented  above,  as  consist- 
ing exclusively  of  the  second  and  its  waves,  yet  it  must  be 
understood  that  the  rise,  and  fall,  and  wave,  of  wider  intervals, 
are  frequently  found  mingled  with  the  simple  second,  and  its 
waves.  For  this  plain  melody  may  happen  to  contain  a  ques- 
tion ;  which  must  be  made,  according  to  its  grammatical 
construction,  or  its  sentiment,  either  with  a  thorough  or  partial 
use  of  the  intervals  of  the  third,  fifth,  or  octave :  or  some  words 
conveying  a  sentiment  of  surprise,  positiveuess,  or  scorn,  or 
mirthful  admiration,  may  call  for  distinction  above  the  rest. 
Now  the  emphatic  syllables  of  such  words  are  so  distinguished, 
by  the  wider  rising  and  falling  intervals  of  the  scale,  and  by 
the  wider  waves,  either  in  the  concrete  or  discrete  form. 

These  last  remarks,  showing  how  the  two  purposes  of  speech 
are  unavoidably  connected  with  each  other,  bring  us  to  the 
second  division,  properly  called,  Expression.  This  is  effected 
by  the  wider  intervals,  both  in  an  upward  and  downward  direc- 
tion, and  by  the  wider  waves.  But,  with  some  exceptions,  the 
expressive  intervals  are  only  applied  occasionally ;  and  not 
generally,  like  the  second,  in  a  diatonic  melody.  It  will  be 
shown,  in  a  section  on  the  Drift  of  the  voice,  to  what  extent,  j 
phrases  and  sentences  of  expressive  intervals  may  be  employed. 

There  is  one  expressive  interval  of  the  scale,  the  Semitone, 
sometimes  employed  on  single  words,  and  conveying  a  sentiment 
of  complaint,  pity,  tenderness,  or  supplication.  But  its  more 
general  use  is  on  phrases,  and  sentences,  and  throughout  dis- 
course. This  is  called  the  Chromatic  melody.  Like  the  two 
forms  of  the  Diatonic,  its  current  is  either  in  the  rise  and  fall 
of  the  simple  interval,  for  less  deliberate  and  serious  sentiment ; 
or  for  its  more  plaintive  and  dignified  expression,  in  the  equal 
wave  of  the  semitone,  with  the  variations  of  its  direct  and 
inverted,  its  single  and  its  double  forms.     Some  parts  of  the 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  299 

Church-service,  containing  words  of  complaint,  penitence  and 
supplication,  call  for  this  solemn  wave  of  the  chromatic  melody. 

Other  functions  contribute  to  the  means  of  correct,  elegant, 
and  expressive  speech.  These  were  considered  under  the  terms. 
Quality  of  voice ;  Melody,  or  the  run  of  radical  pitch  on  its 
different  phrases  ;  Pauses,  with  the  proper  phrases  of  intonation 
to  be  used  at  them ;  and  Grouping,  or  the  means  of  impressing 
on  an  auditor,  more  definitely,  the  syntatic  relation  of  words 
and  phrases,  by  means  of  pause,  emphasis,  and  the  variations  of 
time  and  force. 

This  summary  includes  the  constituents,  thus  far  enumerated, 
that  enter  into  the  composition  of  melody.  Some  important 
functions,  yet  to  be  described,  will  furnish  us  with  the  signs  of 
■ither  sentiments. 


SECTION  XXXII. 

Of  the  Intonation  of  Exclamatory  Sentences. 

The  downward  concretes,  and  the  wave,  are  variously  expres- 
sive of  surprise  and  admiration ;  and  as  these,  with  like  senti- 
ments, are  embraced  by  that  form  of  speech,  called  Exclamation, 
I  shall  point  out  some  of  the  principles  that  seem  to  govern  the 
use  of  these  intervals,  in  Exclamatory  sentences. 

Beyond  a  mere  admission  of  the  existence  and  importance  of 
such  a  thing  as  intonation  in  the  art  of  speaking,  Philology  has 
given  no  other  explanation  of  its  specific  forms,  than  what  is 
vaguely  signified  by  the  common  '  notes'  of  Interrogation  and 
Exclamation.  But  as  these  notes  only  imply  some  undescribed 
peculiarity  of  voice,  without  being  employed  according  to  a  sys- 
tem or  rule  of  intonation,  they  can  be  considered  as  no  more 


300  THE  INTONATION  OF 

than  grammatical  symbols  to  the  eye.  The  indefinite  state  of 
knowledge,  with  regard  to  the  intonation  of  these  forms  of  speech 
has  been  further  confused  by  the  vague  uses  of  their  symbols. 
For  wc  find  the  note  of  interrogation  often  applied  to  what  are 
really  interjective,  or  argumentative  appeals  :  and  what,  by  the 
light  of  inquiry  may  be  shown  to  be  strictly  exclamatory. 

In  the  section  on  interrogative  sentences,  it  was  shown  even 
in  the  questions,  there  exemplified,  that  the  downward  intervals 
and  the  wave,  are  often  necessary  for  the  partial,  and  occasionally 
for  the  thorough  intonation.  Had  the  reader  been  prepared,  by 
previous  explanation  of  the  nature  of  these  intervals,  it  would 
have  been  more  particularly  shown,  that  some  questions  with  the 
grammatical  form,  are  made,  altogether  by  these  downward  move- 
ments. He  may  therefore  now  be  told,  after  what  has  been  said 
of  the  positive  expression  of  the  falling  intervals,  that  whenever 
a  question  employs  the  direct  wave,  or  the  downward  movement, 
the  interrogative  character  is  lost  in  the  sentiments  which  re- 
quire these  adopted  intervals. 

Interrogations  are,  in  their  purpose  or  spirit.  Questions  of 
Belief ;  Appealing ;  Argumentative  ;  Exclamatory  ;  and  Im- 
perative questions. 

The  Question  of  Belief  has  a  latitude  of  meaning,  from  a  mere 
intimation  by  the  inquirer,  of  his  knowledge  upon  the  subject  of 
the  question,  to  his  full  assurance,  that  the  answer  must  accord 
with  the  hopes  and  belief  that  prompted  his  question.  This 
question  takes  its  purpose  and  spirit  from  its  construction ;  and 
infers  it  from  the  premises  of  facts,  feelings,  and  reasons,  pre- 
ceding the  ({uestion ;  or,  if  we  may  so  abuse  the  term,  premise, 
from  the  subsequent  action  or  discourse  ;  constituting  what  we 
called  the  collateral  grounds  of  indication  in  a  question. 

In  treating  formerly,  on  negative  questions,  some  examples 
were  given,  in  which  the  tendency  to  partial  interrogation,  was 
overruled  and  the  question  made  thorough,  by  the  energetic  feel- 
ing of  the  appeal.  But  the  questions,  reserved  for  this  section, 
contain  the  Spirit  of  Belief  to  a  degree,  that  calls  universally, 
for  an  intonation  of  the  positive  downward  intervals. 

I  have  therefore  included  the  above  named  forms  of  interroga- 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  301 

tion  under  the  present  head  of  Exclamatory  Sentences ;  for  these 
require  the  same  downward  forms  of  pitch.  It  will  be  difficult 
however  to  draw  a  precise  line  of  separation  between  the  pure 
interrogation  of  the  rising  intervals,  and  the  interrogative  use  of 
the  downward  positive  movement.  And  though  we  may  not  be 
able  to  make  the  points  of  their  near  resemblance,  a  matter  of 
exact  discrimination,  this  is  no  reason,  we  should  not  describe 
and  arrange  their  manifest  distinctions. 

The  Appealing  Question.  The  spirit  of  this  interrogatory  is, 
in  most  cases,  that  of  positive  conviction.  For  no  one  ever  ap- 
peals, but  with  the  expectation  of  judgment  in  his  favor.  The 
appeal  is  put  in  the  questionary  form,  either  with  a  persuasive 
deference  ;  or  with  cunning  sophistry,  as  a  leading  idea  towards 
the  required  decision.  Now  the  real  or  the  feigned  belief  of  the 
interrogator  produces,  in  questions  of  this  kind,  the  same  down- 
ward intonation  that  positive  declarations  require.  I  say  the 
reference  of  these  questions  is  made,  rather  for  confirmatory  ap- 
probation than  for  the  unbiassed  voice  of  judgment ;  and  this  is 
more  clearly  exhibited  in  the  forms  of  poetical  appeal  to  the  will 
of  heaven.  For  this  implies  the  highest  assurance  on  the  part 
of  the  interrogator.  Thus  in  the  fourth  act,  and  second  scene  of 
Julius  Ccesar,  Brutus  says. 

Judge  me  ye  Gods !      Wrong  1  mine  enemies ! 
And  if  not  so,  how  should  I  wrong  my  brother! 

Here  are  two  appealing  questions  put,  not  in  the  doubt  of  inquiry, 
and  with  anxiety  for  a  reply,  but  with  the  full  expectation  of  a 
favorable  hearing.  The  words  in  italics  therefore  properly  re- 
quire throughout,  the  downward  intonation.  In  truth,  the  spirit 
of  the  expression  is  exclamatory. 

There  is  a  fine  example  of  this  question,  in  HamUt :  where 
this  Prince  comes  upon  the  king,  at  prayer,  after  his  penitent 
Boliloquy. 

Now  might  I  do  it,  pat,  now  lie  is  praying  ; 

And  now  I'll  do't ;  —  and  so  he  goes  to  heayen  : 

And,  so,  am  I  revenged  ? 

The  last  line  is  an  appealing  question  of  belief,  to  the  speaker's 


302  THE  INTONATION  OF 

own  sense  of  retributive  justice.  The  intense  seriousness  of 
Hamlet,  does  not  allow  this  question  to  take  the  more  cheerful 
intonation  of  the  rising  intervals ;  but  calls  for  a  strong  down- 
ward expression  ;  which  may  be  applied  in  this  manner.  With 
a  slight  pause  after,  and,  and  so,  give  to  the  first  of  these  words, 
a  forcible  emphasis  of  the  falling  fifth,  or  octave ;  and  to  the 
second,  a  direct  wave,  of  either  of  these  intervals :  the  rest  of  the 
sentence  having  a  downward  intonation,  with  a  strong  emphasis 
on  venged.  Hamlet  satisfies  himself,  that  sending  the  king  to 
heaven  by  killing  him  at  prayer,  would  not  be  revenge,  but 
'hire  and  salary,'  on  his  part,  and  grace  and  '  salvation'  to  the 
king.  And  the  positive  spirit  of  his  belief  on  this  point,  directs 
his  question  ;  And,  so,  am  I  revenged  ?  And  is  here  to  be 
taken  as  an  illative  particle ;  so,  as  an  ellipsis,  for,  hy  so  doing. 
The  meaning  of  the  passage  may  then  be  amplified  thus  ;  Now, 
might  I  do  it ;  {hill  him)  and  now  [tvliile  he  is  at  prayer)  I'll  do't ; 
and  so  {by  killing  him  at  prayer)  he  goes  to  heaven.  And  so, 
{hut  hy  so  doing)  am  I  revenged  ?  or,  {hy  so  doing  am  I,  there- 
fore revenged  f)  This  full  phraseology  requires  no  special  aid 
from  intonation  to  show  the  thoughtful  vengeance  with  which 
Hamlet  questions  the  connection  between  the  cause  and  the  con- 
sequence, and  thus  justifies  his  appeal.  But  when  the  sentence 
is  reduced  to  its  textual  brevity,  the  emphasis  of  a  positive  into- 
nation is  necessary  to  assist  the  grammatic  feebleness,  if  not  to 
clear  up  the  obscurity  of  the  elliptical  construction. 

The  Argumentative  or  Conclusive  question.  The  object  of 
this  question  is  not  inquiry :  for  it  is  generally  addressed  upon 
data,  that  make  the  phrase,  though  grammatically  an  interroga- 
tion, rather  a  logical  conclusion  from  premises  admitted  or  proved. 
Thus  Antony,  over  the  body  of  Ccesar  says. 

He  hath  brought  many  captives  home  to  Rome, 
Whose  ransoms  did  the  general  coffers  fill: 
Did  this  in   Civsar  seem  ambitious! 

Or  as  more  strongly  marked  in  this  : 

Yon  all  did  see  that   on  the  Lupcrcal, 

I  thrice  presented  him  a  kingly   crown, 

Which  he  did  thrice  refuse.      Was  this  ambition  ! 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  303 

These  arguments,  for  so  they  may  be  called,  though  addressed 
-\vith  the  words  of  a  question,  certainly  cannot  be  received  in  the 
spirit  of  one.  That  spirit  is  really  inferential  that  Caesar  was 
not  ambitious.  In  short,  these  cases  belong  to  what  might  be 
figuratively  termed  an  interrogative  syllogism,  of  that  species 
which  logicians  call  an  Enthymeme,  or  an  argument  of  two  pro- 
positions only,  the  minor  and  the  conclusion,  thus  : 

Cassar  thrice  refused  a  kingly  crowu ; 
Therefore  Cajsar  was  not  ambitious. 

The  syllogism  being  completed  by  the  addition  of  its  major  pro- 
position, thus: 

An  Ambitious  man  ■would  not  refuse  a  kingly  crown ; 
But  Cassar  thrice  refused  a  kingly  crown, 
Therefore  Caesar  was  not  an  ambitious  man. 

Such  being  the  positive  character  of  these  phrases,  it  follows 
from  the  rules  we  have  laid  down,  that  they  should  receive  a 
forcible  intonation  of  the  falling  intervals  ;  the  very  opposite  to 
those  which  denote  interrogation. 

According  to  the  present  method  of  reading,  by  confusing  the 
natural  laws  of  the  voice,  and  thereby  corrupting  its  practice, 
these  questions  might  be  given  with  a  thorough  application  of 
the  rising  intervals.  But  in  this  case  the  intonation  would  be 
apt  to  assume  the  sneering  expression  of  the  double-direct  or 
single-inverted  wave,  in  order,  by  its  ironical  effect,  to  endue  the 
inquiry  with  the  force  of  a  real  negation. 

And  here  our  history  points  out  one  of  the  many  relations, 
discoverable  between  the  arts  of  logic,  grammar,  and  rhetoric, 
and  that  of  elocution  :  or,  in  other  words,  between  all  the  pur- 
poses of  the  human  mind,  and  the  vocal  means  of  expressing  them. 
It  has  been  shown,  that  the  words  in  italics,  of  the  above  exam- 
ples, are  in  meaning,  positive  declarations  of  belief  in  a  fact. 
But  by  a  figure  of  speech,  this  meaning  is  conveyed  in  the  form 
of  a  question  :  and  questions  are  generally  taken  as  words  of 
doubt.  Consequently  in  cases  like  the  above,  where  the  voice 
has  a  positive  meaning  to  express,  it  should  be  able  to  annul 
the  usual  power  of  the  grammatical  question.     The  means  for 


i 


304  THE  INTONATION  OF 

effecting  this,  is  by  the  use  of  the  most  emphatic  degree  of  (he 
downward  intervals ;  for  their  expression  is  furthest  removed 
from  that  of  the  rising  interrogative  voice.  And  this  instance 
may  serve  to  pre-signify  the  kind  of  vocal  and  grammatical  con- 
trariety, that  the  future  cultivators  of  elocution  will  be  called 
upon  to  analyze,  and  to  reconcile,  by  the  extended  powers  and 
resources  of  their  art.  ThiLS,  strictly,  every  proposition  of  a  syl- 
logism must  either  affirm,  or  deny.  No  question  therefore,  can 
form  part  of  the  process  of  logical  reasoning ;  since  it  neither 
affirms  nor  denies.  Yet  see,  in  the  above  cases,  how  the  voice 
breaks  through  this  law  of  the  school,  by  its  forcible  intonation, 
and  endues  an  undetermined  inquiry,  with  the  power  of  a  posi- 
tive declaration. 

The  Exclamatory  Question.  The  appealing  question,  it  was 
stated  above,  is  exclamatory ;  and  conversely,  it  may  be  said 
here,  the  exclamatory  question  embraces  an  appeal.  The  only 
ground  for  distinguishing  them,  is  that  the  exclamatory  phrase 
appears  to  be  further  removed  from  the  nature  of  a  question, 
than  the  appeal,  by  its  seeming  the  less  to  require  an  answer. 

In  Shakspeare's  Richard  11^  the  King,  in  that  celebrated 
descant  on  the  state  of  princes,  says, 

I  live  with  bread  like  you,  feel  want,  taste  grief, 

Need  friends, —  subjected  thus, 

How  can  you  say  to  me,  I  am  a  King! 

The  words  in  italics  do  not  require  an  answer,  for  they 
contain  the  sentiments  of  reproof,  displeasure,  surprise,  and 
conclusive  denial ;  but  not  inquiry :  and  therefore  are  properly 
expressed  by  the  use  of  the  downward  concrete,  and  the  direct 
wave.  m 

The  Imperative  Question.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  overbear- 
ing impetus  in  feelings,  as  well  as  in  physical  momentum ; 
whereby  the  expression,  appropriate  to  one  thought  is  carried 
into  another,  which  under  different  circumstances  would  not 
admit  of  that  expression.  Now  the  intonation  of  an  imperative 
question,  seems  to  be  one  of  this  character :  for  there  are  here 
two   sentiments   in   the   mind  of  the   speaker,  Command   and 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  305 

Inquiry ;  and  these  are  in  immediate  connection  with  each 
other.  But  the  zeal  of  the  question  is  exhibited  in  the  vehement 
desire  for  an  answer  ;  and  this  desire  displays  itself  in  the  earnest 
authority  of  command.  By  this  transfer,  the  command  assumes 
the  whole  energy  of  the  case ;  and  seeming  to  forget,  if  I  may 
so  illustrate  the  subject,  the  expression  due  to  the  question, 
throws  the  positiveness  of  the  imperative  sense  over  the  whole. 
This  is  exemplified  by  Macbeth's  consultation  with  the  witches. 

Witches,  Seek  to  know  no  more. 

Macbeth.     I  will  be  satisfied.     Deny  me  this, 

And  an  eternal  curse  fall  on  you.     Let  me  know, 
Why  sinks  that  caldron!  and  what  noise  is  this! 

The  eagerness  of  Macbeth  is  here  changed  to  anger,  at  the 
prospect  of  disappointment.  This  anger  assumes  the  command, 
in  the  phrase  let  me  knoiv,  and  the  strong  downward  intonation 
of  this  command  is,  by  the  impetus  of  feeling,  continued 
throughout  the  two  succeeding  questions.  The  intelligent 
reader  will,  on  trial,  at  once  admit  the  propriety  of  this  positive 
intonation ;  for  let  him,  after  the  angry  command,  immediately 
give  to  the  questions  the  rising  intervals  of  interrogation,  and 
not  only  will  the  defect  of  appropriate  gravity  and  force  be 
apparent,  but  the  violent  contrast  of  expression,  will  be  even 
ludicrous.  Yet  without  the  overruling  of  this  imperative  senti- 
ment, the  questions  would  naturally  take  the  interrogative 
intonation ;  for  they  contain  a  real  inquiry. 

In  the  above  instance,  the  question  has  the  previous  command 
expressed  ;  b-ut  in  all  cases  where  it  is  wanting,  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  phrase,  tell  me,  or  some  equivalent  imperative. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  class  of  questions,  now 
under  consideration,  drop  their  proper  interrogative  intonation, 
is  that  the  grammatical  phrase  suflBciently  indicates  the  inquiry ; 
and  thus  allows  the  associated  sentiment  to  thoroughly  assume 
the  downward  interval. 

There  arc  other  sentiments,  requiring  the  downward  intervals, 
embraced  in  a  grammatical  interrogation.  But  perhaps  I  have 
given  examples  enough  on  this  subject,  to  furnish  means  for  an 
analysis  and  classification  of  all  its  forms. 


306  THE  INTONATION  OF 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  common  Note  of  interrogation,  we 
may  remark,  that  as  most  questions  are  signified,  by  their  gram- 
matical construction,  and  as  this  symbol,  in  most  places,  sets  no 
rule  for  intonation,  it  may  be  regarded  as  useless  in  all  the 
forms  of  interrogation,  except  the  declaratory,  and  some  phrases 
that  "without  it  might  be  mistaken  for  imperatives.  In  these, 
the  mark  placed  properly  at  the  beginning  of  the  question, 
would  be  definite  in  its  indication,  from  such  sentences  always 
requiring  the  rising  intonation.  That  the  common  manner  of 
applying  this  symbol,  may  confuse  a  reader  who  attempts  to 
direct  his  voice  by  it,  is  a  fair  conclusion  from  its  being  used 
indifferently  in  cases  which  requires,  as  we  have  now  learned,  a 
totally  different  intonation. 

Having  in  the  present,  and  a  former  section,  considered  the 
various  kinds  of  interrogation,  let  us  survey  them  in  recapitu- 
lation. 

Questions  in  their  grammatical  construction,  are  Declarative, 
Common  ;  Adverbial ;  Pronominal ;  and  Negative. 

With  regard  to  their  Spirit,  or  meaning,  they  are  questions  of 
Real  Inquiry,  of  Belief,  and  Triumphant  questions. 

A  declarative  question,  is  an  elliptical  sentence,  from  which 
the  interrogatory  clause  being  omitted,  the  question  must  be 
signified  by  wide  rising  intervals  on  every  syllable.  *  Of  this, 
examples  were  given  in  the  seventeenth  section.  But  some 
declarative  questions  partake  so  much  of  the  Spirit  of  Belief, 
that  they  may  be  uttered  with  only  a  partial  use  of  interrogative 
expression :  as  in  the  following,  of  Hamlet  to  the  Player : 

You  could,  for  a  need,  study  a  speech  of  some  dozen  or  sixteen 
lines,  which  I  would  set  down  and  insei't  in't? 

Declarative,  and  indeed  all  other  questions,  vary  in  extent, 
from  the  usual  length  of  sentences,  to  that  of  a  monosyllable ; 
as  was  shown  in  the  sixteenth  section,  on  the  interrogative  into- 
nation of  the  word  yes.  A  similar  use  may  be  made  of  no ; 
for  though  this  declaratory  negative  is  always  identical,  in  its 
grammatical  sense ;  yet  the  interrogative  intonation,  suspends, 
or  changes  that  sense,  and  thus  throws  the  meaning  into  doubt. 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  307 

Questions  of  real  inquiry  imply  the  interrogator's  entire  igno- 
rance of  the  subject.  They  are  generally  of  the  declarative, 
common,  pronominal,  or  adverbial  form. 

Questions  of  belief  imply  various  degrees  of  knowledge,  on 
the  subject  of  inquiry  :  that  knowledge  being  frequently  inferred, 
from  collateral  reasons  and  circumstances,  declared,  or  intimated 
in  the  context.  They  are  generally  negative  in  their  construc- 
tion ;  but  may  have  other  forms. 

The  triumphant  question,  is  the  highest  degree  of  the  ques- 
tion of  belief:  and  is  generally  negative. 

Figurative  questions, —  to  which  however  the  imperative  is  an 
exception, —  denoting  a  full  and  positive  belief  on  the  part  of  the 
interrogator,  are  included  under  the  present  head  of  Exclama- 
tory sentences ;  and  call  for  the  downward  intervals,  or  the  wave, 
such  as  I  now  proceed  to  show  proper  Exclamations  require. 

Many  exclamations  may  be  regarded  as  elliptical  sentences. 
The  design  of  these  broken  phrases  is  to  give  a  quick  and 
forcible  representation  of  thought  or  feeling :  and  as  this  is  done 
with  a  brevity  of  style,  which  sometimes  might  not  clearly 
convey  the  sentiment,  it  is  necessary  to  employ  the  additional 
means  of  intonation.  And  hence  arise  the  structure  and  the 
characteristic  expression  of  Exclamation. 

The  shortest  exclamatory,  like  the  shortest  interrogative  sen- 
tence consists  of  a  monosyllabic  word  ;and  this  may  be  any  of  the 
parts  of  speech,  if  perhaps  we  except  the  article,  conjunction  and 
preposition ;  the  interjection  being  the  most  common.  And 
here  we  have  the  power  of  intonation  in  the  strongest  light ; 
for  thus  it  seems  to  be  the  art  of  speaking,  almost  without  words. 
From  the  monosyllable,  exclamations  vary  in  extent  through  de- 
grees of  the  ellipsis,  to  the  full  syntax  of  a  sentence  ;  though  the 
greater  part  are  abbreviations  by  the  haste  of  passion.  Exclama- 
tions might  then  be  arranged  according  to  their  structure,  as 
grammatically  imperfect,  or  as  complete.  I  shall  class  them  ac- 
cording to  their  sentiments. 

When  it  is  said,  exclamatory  sentences  generally,  if  not 
always,  bear  the  falling  intervals  or  the  wave,  it  must  be  under- 
stood that  the  extent  of  the  interval  is  in  proportion  to  the  force 


308  THE  INTONATION  OF 

of  the  sentiment.  Thus  the  following  interjective  reflection,  from 
its  moderate  temper,  might  require  no  more  than  the  direct  wave 
of  the  second  on  0,  and  the  triad  of  the  cadence,  on  the  remain- 
ing three  syllables. 

0  withered  truth ! 

While  the  energetic  emphasis  of  Hamlet's  revengeful  exclama- 
tion at  the  atrocity  of  the  King, 

0  Tillain,  villam,   smiling  damned  villain ! 

should  receive  the  deep  and  forcible  descent  of  the  octave. 

Of  the  many  kinds  of  exclamatory  sentences,  I  shall  only  no- 
tice, the  Admiring,  the  Plaintive,  the  Scornful,  and  the  Impera- 
tive ;  since  these  illustrate  the  several  forms  of  intonation  re- 
quired by  this  impressive  class  of  phrases. 

The  Admiring  Exclamation.  Admiration  is  an  earnest  approba- 
tory sentiment,  felt  at  new  and  elevated  perceptions  or  thoughts. 
Now,  the  newness  of  objects  or  of  our  thoughts  upon  them, 
involves  in  a  degree,  the  sentiment  of  inquiry  as  to  their  nature 
and  cause ;  and  thus  seems  to  call  for  the  use  of  the  rising 
intervals.  But  this  sentiment  has  not  quite  the  force,  requi- 
ring a  verbal  or  a  vocal  question :  while,  at  the  same  time 
there  is  in  the  character  of  Exclamation,  a  positive  conviction  of 
the  rare  importance  of  the  object  of  Admiration.  It  is  from 
embracing  these  two  sentiments,  that  the  admiring  exclamation 
calls  for  the  direct  wave  or  union  of  the  rising  and  the  falling  in- 
terval ;  the  positive  character  of  the  exclamation,  by  the  down- 
ward course  of  the  last  constituent,  predominating  over  whatever 
sentiment  of  inquiry  may  be  indicated  by  the  previous  rise.  Let 
us  take  as  an  example,  the  following  description  of  the  assem- 
bling of  the  fallen  Angels  at  Pandemonium. 

So  thick  the  airy  crowd 
Swarm'd  and  were  straightened  ;  till  the  signal  given, 
Jiehold  a  ivonchr .' 

Here  the  syllables  hold  and  wond  require  the  direct  wave  of 
the  fifth,  and  by  their  indefinite  quantity  freely  admit  of  it. 

The  Plaintive  Exclamation.  It  was  shown  in  the  nineteenth 
section,  in  what  manner  a  plaintive  interrogation  may  be  made, 


EXCLAMATORY  SENTENCES.  309 

by  the  junction  of  the  semitonic  expression  with  the  wider  up- 
ward intervals.  The  plaintive  exclamation  is  produced  by  the 
rise  of  the  semitone  continued  into  the  descending  third,  or  fifth, 
or  octave,  according  to  the  force  of  the  sentiment ;  thus  constitu- 
ting a  direct  wave  of  unequal  intervals.  The  direct  Avave  of  the 
semitone  and  fifth  is  the  proper  intonation,  for  the  accented  syl- 
lables of  the  following  plaintive  exclamation  of  Macdufi": 

0  Banquo,  Banquo, 
Our  royal  master's  murdered! 

The  Scornful  Exclamation.  It  was  said  in  the  thirty-first  sec- 
tion, that  Scorn  according  to  its  degree,  is  expressed  by  the  sim- 
ple rise  or  fall  of  the  wider  intervals,  or  by  the  various  forms  of 
the  wave,  when  made  with  an  aspirated  or  a  guttural  voice ;  the 
lighter  degrees  of  expression,  or  the  simple  rise  and  fall  being 
appropriate  to  the  sneer  ;  and  the  stronger,  consisting  of  the  wider 
waves,  to  the  deepest  contempt  and  execration.  Now  when  such 
sentiments  are  contained  within  short  emphatic  sentences,  they 
require  what  is  here  called  the  Scornful  Exclamation ;  as  in  the 
following,  from  the  Merchant  of  Venice. 

Bassanio.     This  is  seignor  Antonio. 

Shylock.     How  like  a  fawning  publican  he  looks ! 

The  sentiment  of  this  last  line  will  be  properly  expressed,  if 
the  syllables  in  italics  receive  the  unequal  wave  of  the  rising 
fifth  and  falling  octave,  under  a  slight  degree  of  guttural  aspira- 
tion ;  and  the  rest  of  the  sentence,  the  falling  fifth,  with  the 
like  aspiration. 

The  Imperative  Exclamation.  An  imperative  sense  univer- 
sally requires  a  downward  interval,  or  a  direct  wave.  Other 
functions,  such  as  stress,  aspiration,  and  guttural  grating,  to  be 
spoken  of  hereafter,  serve  to  mark  the  degrees  of  force  or 
authority  in  the  command.  The  following  exclamation  of 
Macbeth  to  the  Ghost  of  Banquo,  requires  the  downward  fifth 
or  octave  throughout ;  according  to  the  degree  of  energy  the 
speaker  may  think  appropriate  to  it. 

Hence  horrible  shadow, 
Unreal  mockery  hence ! 


310  THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE. 

We  need  not  pursue  this  subject  further.  Exclamations  arc- 
but  forcible  expressions ;  and  there  may  be  as  many  kinds  as 
varieties  of  feeling  and  thought.  Thus  every  mental  energy  and 
passion  may  be  found  in  discourse,  under  the  exclamatory  form. 
Let  others  define  and  divide  them.  Perhaps  the  nomenclature, 
and  examples  here  given,  may  assist  the  work  of  inquiry  and 
classification :  and  when  hereafter,  Elocution  shall  be  raised  into 
a  Science,  and  so  cease  to  be,  at  least  in  intonation,  a  mere 
animal  instinct ;  all  those  things  in  the  art,  that  can  be  to  me 
but  subjects  of  hopeful  imagination,  may,  in  the  fulness  of 
knowledge,  be  accomplished  by  others. 

Upon  the  subject  of  Interrogation  and  Exclamation,  it  is  to  be 
remarked,  that  in  some  cases,  emphatic  distinction  may  require 
the  use  of  a  downward  interval  or  a  direct  wave,  among  the 
rising  intervals  of  interrogation ;  and  a  rising  interval,  among 
the  downward  concretes  and  direct  waves  of  exclamation.  The 
contrasts  of  intonation  in  such  instances,  constituting  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  what  is  called  emphasis,  or  an  impressive 
designation  of  single  words. 


SECTION  XXXIII. 

Of  the  Tremor  of  the  Voice. 

If  the  reader  has  borne  in  mind  the  explanations  in  the  first 
section  of  this  essay,  he  must  be  aware  that  the  forms  of  pitch 
thus  far  described  are,  severally,  phenomena  of  the  concrete, 
the  discrete,  and  the  chromatic  scales.  He  has  now  to  learn 
the  means  of  expression  derived  from  the  Tremulous  scale. 
•  This  scale  consists  of  a  rise  and  fall  through  the  whole  com- 
pass  of  the  voice,  by  a  more  delicate  exercise  of  that  particular 
vibration  in  the  throat,  called  in  common  language,  gurgling. 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE.  311 

Although  the  Tremor  has  always  been  known  as  a  vocal  func- 
tion, its  nature  is  here  first  analyzed,  and  its  use  and  manage- 
ment in  speech,  described. 

In  our  first  section  there  is  a  general  account  of  the  Tremulous 
scale.     We  must  now  be  more  particular. 

It  has  been  shown,  that  every  effort  of  the  voice  is  necessarily 
through  the  radical  and  vanishing  movement :  and  that  the 
audible  characteristic  of  the  several  intervals  of  the  scale  may 
be  distinctly  recognized,  even  on  the  shortest  immutable  syllables. 

Since  then  each  of  the  tonic  and  subtouic  elements  does, 
even  in  its  shortest  time,  always  pass  through  the  concrete,  it 
follows  that,  however  quickly  successive  any  one  of  them  may 
be  repeated,  each  impulse  must  be  a  concrete  interval.  When 
therefore  the  tremor  is  made  on  any  of  the  above  named  ele- 
ments, either  alone  or  in  syllabic  combination, —  and  in  this  last 
case,  it  is  heard  only  on  the  single  element;. —  the  successive 
constituent  impulses  of  that  tremor  must  each  consist  of  an 
abrupt  radical,  and  of  a  rapid  concrete  of  some  one  interval  of 
the  scale.  Let  us  for  more  precise  description,  call  these  im- 
pulses, or  iterations,  the  Tittles.  Thus  the  tremulous  scale  is 
made  up  of  a  succession  of  Tittles,  each  of  which,  like  the  com- 
mon syllabic  impulse,  has  its  radical,  and  its  concrete  pitch. 
Taking  the  name  of  the  interval  as  a  designation,  there  may  be 
a  tremor  of  the  semitone,  second,  third,  fifth,  and  octave.  That 
is,  the  concrete  pitch  of  each  successive  tittle  may  rapidly  rise 
or  fall  through  those  intervals  respectively.  In  this  case,  the 
tittles  are  supposed  to  be  continued  on  the  same  line  of  radical 
pitch,  the  vanishes  rising  therefrom  to  their  required  hights; 
but  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  while  an  iteration  of  these 
vanishes  is  going  on,  through  any  concrete  interval,  the  radical 
pitch  of  these  vanishes  may,  in  its  iterations,  be  carried  upward 
or  downward  through  the  whole  compass  of  the  voice.  In  this 
tremulous  scale,  we  have  Abruptness  as  an  independent  3Iode; 
constituting,  with  the  feeblest  voice  of  pitch,  the  whole  matter 
of  the  function  ;  and  suggesting,  no  more  the  common  idea  of 
Force,  than  an  immutable  syllable  suggests  the  idea  of  Time, 
or  a  point,  the  idea  of  a  line.     This  change  of  radical  pitch  in 


312 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE. 


the  tremulous  movement  is  therefore,  made  in  two  ways,  as  in  the 
following  diagram : 


First.  A  given  number  of  these  Tittles,  are  cofitinued  on  one 
line  of  radical  pitch :  as  in  the  first  and  second  bars  of  the 
diagram ;  the  first,  having  the  rapid  concrete  of  a  third ;  the 
second,  that  of  a  fifth.  The  third  bar  represents  an  iterated 
line  of  tittles,  with  a  skip  of  radical  pitch  through  a  second  or 
tone ;  then  again,  an  iteration  at  the  summit  of  that  tone : 
and  thus  by  an  alternate  succession  of  iterations  on  a  line,  with 
a  radical  change  by  proximate  degrees,  the  voice  may  ascend 
through  the  whole  extent  of  the  scale.  In  this  way,  the  radical 
skip  is  through  the  diatonic  scale  of  song,  writh  an  iteration  of 
the  tittles  on  each  degree  of  the  scale. 

Second.  The  ascent  through  the  scale  may  be  made,  by 
taking  the  radical  of  each  tittle  of  the  tremor  successively  above 
the  last,  at  a  less  distance  than  the  tone  or  even  the  semitone : 
as  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  bars ;  the  rapid  concrete  in  the  former, 
being  a  third,  and  in  the  latter  a  fifth.  Thus,  by  a  gradual  rise  of 
the  radical  pitch,  through  what  we  called  minute  intervals,  the 
whole  compass  of  the  voice  is  traversed. 

We  have  no  means  for  ascertaining  the  extent  of  space 
between  the  tittles,  in  this  second  kind  of  ascent.  It  may  be 
inferred  that  it  is  considerably  less  than  a  semitone  :  for  if  we 
make  a  tremulous  movement  through  any  cognizable  interval, 
for  instance,  an  ascending  third, —  and  this  may  be  done  by 
familiarizing  the  ear  with  a  discrete  skip  from  first  to  third, 
and  then  comparing  it  with  a  like  rise  by  the  tremor, —  the  num- 
ber of  tremulous  impulses  will  greatly  exceed  five ;  which  is  the 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE.  31, 3 

number  of  concretes  in  a  rising  third,  through  the  successive 
degrees  of  the  seraitonic  scale.* 

When  the  tremulous  movement  is  through  the  descending 
scale,  whether  by  the  diatonic  progress  and  iteration  on  a  line, 
or  by  the  gradual  change  of  minute  intervals,  the  concrete  of 
the  tittles  takes  likewise  the  downward  movement :  for  the 
expression  designed  by  the  downward  course  of  the  radical 
pitch  of  the  tittles,  seems  to  require  a  like  direction  of  the  con- 
crete. Nor  have  I  been  able  to  perceive,  in  the  ordinary  uses 
of  the  voice,  that  the  radical  pitch  of  the  tremor,  and  its  con- 
crete, move  in  directions  contrary  to  each  other. 

The  tremor  then  consists  of  a  number  of  impulses  of  sound, 
or  tittles,  of  the  least  assignable  duration ;  each  of  which  does 
nevertheless  pass  concretely  through  some  one  interval  of  the 

*  Some  one,  it  seems,  has  gone  far  beyond  common  perception  in  distinguish- 
ing such  minute  intervals :  as  I  find  the  following  statement  under  a  note,  on 
the  nine  hundred  and  twentieth  page  of  a  recent,  comprehensive,  able,  and 
popular  English  Work  on  Physiology.  '  It  is  said  that  the  celebrated  Mme. 
Mara  was  able  to  sound  one  hundred  different  intervals  between  {ivilhin  the  limits 
of)  each  tone.  The  compass  of  her  voice  was  at  least  three  octaves,  or  twenty- 
one  tones ;  [notes  ;)  so  that  the  total  number  of  [minute)  intervals  was  twenty-one 
hundred,  all  comprised,  [produced,)  within  an  extreme  variation  of  one-eighth 
of  an  inch ;  [in  the  glottis ;)  so  that  it  might  be  said  that  she  was  able  to  deter- 
mine, [that  is  accurately/  to  execute,  and  as  I  understand  it,  to  perceive  the  effect  of) 
the  contractions  of  her  vocal  muscles  to  nearly  the  seventeen-thousandth  of 
an  inch.' 

Here  is,  as  to  execution  and  effect,  a  most  extraordinary  power.  If  how- 
ever, the  Author,  or  Contributor,  who  records  the  instance,  and  who  appeass  to 
have  read  every  treatise  on  the  voice,  but  one,  would  just  look  into  our  un- 
valued work,  of  which  there  is  a  copy  in  the  British  Museum,  he  might  perhaps 
agree  with  us  in  the  conclusion,  that  by  the  division  of  a  tone  into  one  hundred 
parts, —  if  even  a  muscular  possibility  in  the  human  voice, —  the  iteration  of 
the  tittles,  either  by  immediate  rise  or  fall,  would  be  so  close,  that  it  could  only 
be  heard,  as  a  continuous  or  concrete  sound.  The  greater  tone  of  the  aoale  is 
theoretically  divided  into  nine  parts,  called  commas :  and  as  even  this  ninth 
part,  in  our  belief,  as  well  as  in  the  words  of  Rousseau  '  is  to  cars  like  ours, 
useless  except  in  calculation:'  what  ear  was  it,  perceived  the  fraction  of  a 
hundredth,  and  numerically  followed  it  up  or  down  in  tremulous  progression 
through  a  single  tone? 

Perhaps  the  present  note  may  in  part,  illustrate  what  is  said  in  the  fifth 
section,  on  the  groundless  authorities,  and  careless  conclusions^  so  common  in 
vocal  Physiology. 

21 


314  THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE. 

scale.  These  impulses  being  either  iterations  on  the  same  line 
of  pitch,  or  iterations  whose  radical  pitch  rises  or  falls  through 
the  scale,  by  very  minute  discrete  intervals. 

That  the  tremor  is  so  constructed,  may  be  learned  from  ex- 
periment ;  for  it  will  show  that  the  tremulous  iteration  may  be 
continued  on  a  line,  without  rising  or  falling  ;  and  that  it  may 
be  carried  gradually,  to  the  lowest  audible  pitch,  or  to  the  highest 
reach  of  the  falsetto.  And  further,  that  the  constituent  tittles 
of  the  tremor,  however  momentary,  do  pass  rapidly  through 
concrete  intervals  may  be  proved  by  trial :  for  the  plaintive 
effect  of  the  semitone,  may  be  heard  on  every  part  of  the  ascend- 
ing series  of  the  tremor,  through  the  whole  compass  of  the  voice ; 
and  in  like  manner  the  plain  effect  of  the  tone,  and  the  inter- 
roo'ative  expression  of  the  third,  or  fifth,  or  octave,  may  be 
ffiven  to  this  rising  tremor.  Now  as  the  interval  of  the  radical 
ascent  in  this  case,  is  not  a  semitone,  tone,  or  wider  interval,  but 
a  very  minute  space ;  it  is  plain,  the  expressive  effect  here 
spoken  of  is  not  produced  by  this  minute  skip,  but  by  a  momen- 
tary transit  of  the  concrete  tittles  through  those  intervals 
respectively. 

It  was  in  reference  to  this  peculiar  progression,  so  different 
from  the  concrete  movement ;  from  the  discrete  steps  of  the 
diatonic  scale ;  and  from  the  purely  semitonic  succession  of  the 
chromatic,  that  I  ventured,  in  the  first  section,  to  call  this  dis- 
crete and  chattering  variation  of  pitch,  the  Tremulous  scale. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  the  concrete  pitch,  or  vanish 
of  the  tremor,  from  its  momentary  duration,  is  restricted  to  its 
simple  rise,  and  fall.  But  the  radical  pitch,  besides  the  simple 
rise  and  fall  by  its  minute  interval,  may  have  these  united  into 
the  form  of  the  wave.  This  tremulous  wave  has  all  the  forms 
of  the  common  concrete  wave ;  while  the  rapid  vanish  still 
accompanies  the  radical  pitch  throughout  its  winding  progress. 

The  uses  and  power  of  the  tremor,  in  the  work  of  expression, 
can  be  better  explained  after  a  prefatory  consideration  of  the 
functions  of  Laughter  and  Crying. 

The  pure  and  unpronounced  act  of  Laughter  consists  in  the 
use  of  the  tremulous  scale,  both  in  its  concrete  and  radical  pitch. 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE.  315 

Its  concrete  pitch  may  be  any  of  the  intervals  of  the  scale, 
except  the  semitone  and  minor  third  ;  Avhile  its  radical  pitch  may 
either  be  continued  on  the  same  line,  or  may  rise  or  fall  by  its 
minute  intervals,  through  the  whole  compass  of  the  voice.  In 
speaking  of  the  application  of  a  concrete  interval  to  immutable 
syllables,  it  was  shown  that  the  space  of  the  rapid  concrete, 
though  immeasurable  directly,  as  an  interval  of  the  scale,  is  yet 
recognized  by  its  characteristic  expression  :  and  the  reader  may 
practically  apply  the  principle  here,  in  discriminating  the  inter- 
vals used  in  laughter. 

When  the  concrete  pitch  is  a  tone,  and  the  tremor  is  continued 
on  a  level  line  of  radical  pitch,  especially  if  that  line  is  at  the 
lower  range  of  the  voice,  the  function  may  indeed  bear  the  name 
of  laughter,  but  it  will  be  a  mere  phlegmatic  chuckling  in  the 
throat.  While  the  concrete  is  still  in  the  tone,  if  the  iterations 
of  the  radical  pitch  rise  and  fall  alternately  through  a  second 
or  a  third,  the  expression  of  the  laugh  will  become  more 
sprightly  and  colored.  When  the  third  or  fifth  is  used  in  the 
concrete  pitch,  and  the  radical  iterations  are  carried  through 
the  wider  intervals  of  the  scale,  it  gives  the  utmost  indication  of 
vivid  expression. 

Laughter  is  generally  made  on  one  of  the  tonic  elements  ; 
but  it  may  be  executed  on  the  subtonics,  and  even  on  the  atonies 
in  a  whispering  breath.  In  the  case  of  the  atonies,  the  discrete 
pitch  rises  and  falls,  through  the  scale  of  whisper,  described  in 
the  fifth  section.  Laughter  is  made  on  all  places  within  the 
compass  of  the  voice,  but  it  generally  affects  the  falsetto.  Sup- 
posing the  quality  of  the  voice  to  be  given,  laughter  will  be  most 
agreeable  and  varied  and  spirited,  when  it  consists  of  a  tremor 
of  well  accented  tittles,  distinctly  separated  from  each  other; 
with  a  concrete  pitch,  moving  in  succession,  by  simple  rise  and 
fall,  through  every  interval  except  the  semitone,  and  minor 
third ;  and  through  the  whole  range  of  the  vocal  compass,  in  its 
radical  pitch:  the  expression  being  still  further  marked  by 
variations  in  force,  as  the  tremor  rises  and  falls  by  these  radical 
changes. 

Crying  is  made  by  a  movement  through  the  simple  rise  and 


316  THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE. 

fall  of  the  semitone,  or  perhaps  the  minor  third,  or  through  the 
direct  or  inverted  wave  of  these  intervals.  No  other  interval  is 
used  in  this  function  :  The  act  of  crying  has  two  forms  :  it  may 
be  in  the  concrete,  or  in  the  tremulous  scale.  Infants  cry  in 
the  first  manner,  by  a  mere  prolonged  quantity  on  some  tonic 
element.  It  is  a  long  time  before  the  tremor  is  heard  in  their 
voice.  The  first  step  towards  it,  is  in  the  convulsive  catch  of 
sobbing.  By  degrees  this  increases  in  frequency,  and  the  cry 
becomes  thereby,  at  last  composed  of  the  rapid  iteration  of  the 
tremor. 

The  tremulous  function  of  crying,  like  that  of  laughter,  con- 
sists of  a  concrete  and  of  a  radical  pitch.  That  is,  the 
iteration  of  tittles,  each  with  its  rapid  concrete  semitone  or 
minor  third,  may  successively  ascend  or  descend  through  the 
whole  compass  of  the  voice,  by  such  minute  discrete  steps  as 
were  ascribed  to  the  radical  pitch  of  laughter. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  children  while  crying  in  the  tremu- 
lous movement,  do  from  some  momentary  change  of  sentiment, 
and  without  a  cessation  of  the  tremor,  pass  into  laughter.  Here 
a  cheerful  sentiment  necessarily  produces  a  change  of  the  con- 
crete, from  the  semitone  or  minor  third,  to  the  second  or  other 
wider  interval.  And  in  a  paroxysm  of  hysteria,  the  transition 
between  these  different  means  of  gay  and  of  plaintive  expression 
is  so  frequent  and  rapid,  that  the  hearer  is  sometimes  at  a 
momentary  loss,  to  say  which  function  is  in  operation.  Under 
these  circumstances,  a  person  may  properly  be  said  to  laugh 
and  cry  in  the  same  breath. 

The  association  of  the  semitone  or  minor  third,  whether  in 
their  simple-prolonged  or  in  their  tremulous  form,  with  the  sen- 
timent of  distress  is  so  close,  that  though  crying  may  have 
ceased,  still  should  the  feeling  of  distress  not  have  passed  away, 
there  will  be  a  kind  of  mental  hiatus  in  the  attempt  to  return 
even  to  the  diatonic  intonation  of  speech.*  There  are  persons, 
who,  for  the  sake  of  sport  or  fraud,  play  the  part  of  crying.     If 

*  Perhaps,  some  of  my  readers  may  recollect  such  a  case  having  occurred 
to  themselves,  in  childhood.  I  make  the  remark  from  my  own  experience,  at 
that  uncorrupted  period,  when  nature,  as  yet,  had  kept  us  all  alike. 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE.  317 

they  are  habitual  mimics,  and  have  flexible  voices,  they  may  per- 
haps succeed.  But  nature  is  always  honest,  while  humanity, 
her  intended,  but  false  representative,  is  ever  ready  to  deceive. 
Crafty  men  are  so  well  aware,  the  lips  may  mar  the  underplots 
of  the  heart,  that  they  are  obliged  to  guard  the  ruling  passion 
by  circumspection,  or  brevity,  or  silence.  When  mirth  or  sorrow 
is  within  us,  it  is  hard  to  restrain  its  instinctive  expression.  He 
who  would  be  to  the  intelligent  observer,  an  unsuspected  hypo- 
crite in  his  voice,  must  mask  even  his  sentiments  to  himself. 

After  the  foregoing  account  of  the  use  of  the  tremor  upon 
single  elements,  in  the  functions  of  laughter  and  crying,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  foresee  the  effect  of  its  application  to  syllabic 
utterance  in  the  current  of  discourse. 

When  the  semitone,  in  the  chromatic  melody  of  speech,  is 
given  under  the  form  of  tremor,  it  enhances  the  plaintive  expres- 
sion of  the  simple  concrete.  For  since  crying  is  the  ultimate 
voice  of  distress,  its  tremulous  characteristic  is  applied  to  speech, 
as  the  means  of  marking  an  excess  of  complaint  and  grief,  and 
the  ardor  of  distressful  or  tender  supplication.  Tremulous  semi- 
tonic  speech  is  the  utmost  practicable  crying  upon  words. 

To  exhibit  the  engrafting  of  the  tremor  on  a  syllable,  let  the 
reader  pronounce  the  word  name,  in  a  tremulous  movement 
through  the  simple  rise,  or  fall,  or  wave  of  the  semitone.  He 
will  perceive,  the  tremor  equally  on  the  tonic,  and  on  each  of 
the  two  subtonic  elements. 

The  tremor  on  the  semitone  may  mark  emphatically,  the 
plaintive  sentiment  of  a  single  word  :  or  it  may  be  continued  on 
occasional,  yet  limited  portions  of  discourse.  If  this  restricted 
application  deserves  a  name,  it  may  be  called  the  Tremulous 
chromatic  melody.  The  following  stanza,  in  which  the  tremor 
of  age  is  supposed  to  be  joined  with  that  of  supplicating  distress, 
may,  when  read  with  the  coloring  of  dramatic  action,  afford  a 
proper  example  of  this  melody. 

Pity  the  sorrows  of  a  poor  old  man, 
Whose  trembling  limbs  have  borne  him  to  your  door, 
Whose  days  are  dwindled  to  the  shortest  span ; 
0  give  relief  and  heaven  will  bless  your  store. 


318  THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE. 

Here  the  tremor  of  the  semitone  may  be  applied  to  every 
emphatic  syllable  capable  of  prolongation,  which  is  the  case  with 
all  except  those  of  yity  and  sJiortest :  but  even  these  may  in  a 
limited  degree,  receive  it.  For,  particular  purposes  of  expres- 
sion allow  a  slight  extension  of  quantity  on  immutable  syllables, 
and  unemphatic  and  unaccented  words,  that  in  dispassionate 
utterance  would  bear  but  the  shortest  time. 

The  occasional  use  of  the  tremulous  semitone  upon  individual 
words,  will  be  noticed  in  the  future  section  on  Emphasis. 

When  the  tremor  passes  through  the  second,  third,  fifth,  or 
octave,  or  through  the  wave  of  these  intervals,  it  joins  the 
sentiment  of  derision,  mirth,  joy,  or  exultation  to  that  of  inter- 
rogation, surprise,  command,  or  scorn,  respectively  conveyed  by 
the  smooth  concrete  of  those  intervals.  In  short,  it  is  applying 
to  speech  what  is  transferable  from  the  function  of  laughter ; 
and  it  adds  thereto  all  the  meaning  and  force  of  its  satisfaction. 

The  tremor  on  wider  intervals,  and  on  the  waves,  is  used  prin- 
cipally for  emphasis  :  though  in  playful  discourse,  it  is  sometimes- 
heard  in  continuation  on  more  than  one  syllable,  and  occasionally 
even  on  short  sentences. 

There  is  a  use  of  this  laughing  tremor,  as  we  may  call  its 
inarticulate  execution  on  the  second,  third,  fifth,  and  octave, 
which  deserves  notice.  I  mean  its  employment  in  that  hysteri- 
cal exclamation,  heard  in  the  exaggerated  scenes  of  the  drama. 
In  this  case,  the  laughing  tremor  seems  to  be  strangely  sub- 
servient to  all  species  of  expression :  for  there  is  scarcely  an 
excessive  degree  of  passion,  whether  of  joy  or  suffering,  in  which 
it  may  not  with  caution,  be  effectively  used.  One  can  under- 
stand readily,  why  this  vehement  expression  should  denote  the 
excess  of  those  feelings,  naturally  connected  with  laughter ;  but 
it  is  not  at  once  manifest  why  nature  should  so  reverse  the 
ordination  of  her  signs,  as  to  give  the  concrete  tremor  of  the 
second  or  of  wider  intervals,  to  sentiments  that  in  cases  of  less 
excitement,  instinctively  receive  the  plaintive  tremor  of  the 
semitone.     Let  us  try  to  explain  this  matter. 

The  occasions  on  which  this  hysteric  laugh  is  employed,  are 
those  of  the  highest  possible  intensity  of  distress.     Now  by  the 


I 


THE  TREMOR  OF  THE  VOICE.  319 

natural  rule  of  moderate  expression,  the  tremulous  semitone 
should  be  used  :  and  with  this  indeed  the  expression  does  gene- 
rally begin.  But  as  the  feeling  increases  in  vehemence,  the 
mind  becomes  so  far  overruled  by  its  excess,  as  to  dissever  the 
natural  association :  and  the  voice,  giving  way  to  the  mere  habit 
of  employing  the  wider  intervals  for  keen  and  forcible  expression, 
leaves  the  concrete  and  the  tremor  of  the  semitone,  for  the  more 
free  expansion  and  piercing  energy  of  the  third,  fifth,  or  octave, 
in  its  concrete  and  tremulous  forms.  This  is  the  reason  why  in 
hysteria,  which  is  usually  brought  on  by  distress,  or  other  con- 
genial emotions,  the  ordinary  course  of  plaintive  expression  is 
overruled ;  and  while  the  more  moderate  forms  of  this  nervous 
excitement  are  signified  by  the  semitonic  intonation,  its  higher 
gusts  are  characterized  by  an  idiotic  laugh :  idiotic,  because  a 
motiveless  and  imbecile  confounding  of  the  natural  law  of  vocal 
expression.  Although  this  hysteric  expression  may,  when 
judiciously  applied,  be  both  proper  and  efiective,  in  an  extraor- 
dinary scene  of  the  drama ;  yet  as  it  is  generally  accompanied 
with  considerable  grimace,  is  strongly  impressive,  and  can  be 
well  heard  in  the  remote  corners  of  the  Gallery,  it  is  apt  to 
be  employed  on  the  Stage,  as  a  vocal  trick ;  especially  by  the 
Actress,  who  without  feeling  its  appropriate  occasion,  has  yet, 
by  ambitious  practice,  or  nervous  habit,  a  skillful  command 
over  its  mechanical  execution. 

It  requires  more  than  common  facility  of  voice  to  perform  the 
tremor  with  precision  and  elegance.  Its  full  efficacy  and  grace- 
ful finish  is  accomplished,  by  giving  it  the  greatest  number  of 
tittles  of  which  the  assumed  interval  is  susceptible ;  by  making 
these  tittles  in  fluent  succession,  with  a  distinct  accent,  with 
equal  time,  with  a  stress,  varied  as  expression  requires,  and  with 
a  ready  progression  by  radical  pitch,  through  the  simple  inter- 
val, and  the  wave.  It  may  be  added  that  the  tremor,  generally 
in  speech,  and  always  in  continued  laughter,  employs  the  wave. 

As  the  tremor  is  applied  to  all  intervals  both  ascending  and 
descending,  and  to  the  wave,  it  has  under  such  application,  the 
degree  and  variety  of  their  several  characters.  For  if  made  on 
a  downward  interval  of  the  fifth,  the  expression  will  be  of  a 


320  FORCE  OF  VOICE. 

graver  cast  than  on  a  rise  of  the  same  extent :  and  on  the  rising 
second  it  will  have  less  gaiety  than  on  the  rising  fifth  or  octave, 
or  their  waves. 

After  the  preceding  view  of  the  simple  intervals,  and  of  the 
tremor,  the  reader  must  be  able  to  recognize,  and  with  the 
anticipative  resoui'ces  of  science,  even  to  /ore-hear  the  effect  of 
their  detailed  combinations.  If  with  all  I  have  said,  he  will  not 
do  this  for  himself,  it  would  be  to  no  purpose  to  do  it  for  him. 
It  is  an  agreeable  office  to  stand  prompter  to  a  pausing,  yet  a 
ready  comprehension :  but  it  is  an  irksome  duty,  to  be  obliged 
to  push  an  unwilling  intellect  on  to  the  last  syllable  of  its  part. 


SECTION  XXXIV. 

Of  Force  of  Voice. 

This  Mode  of  the  voice  is  subdivided  into  forms  and  degrees. 
These  degrees,  without  much  precision,  are  denoted  in  common 
language  by  the  words,  loud,  soft,  strong,  and  weak.  Indefinite 
as  the  rule  may  be,  yet  taking  common  conversation  as  a  divid- 
ing line  between  the  strong  and  the  weak  in  speech,  we  might 
apply  the  terms  Forte  and  Piano,  as  relative  degrees  severally 
above  and  below  it. 

Force  may  be  applied  to  phrases,  or  to  one  or  more  sentences, 
for  the  purpose  of  energetic  expression.  Or  it  may  be  limited 
to  single  words,  to  syllables,  and  to  certain  Parts  of  the  concrete 
movement,  to  distinguish  them  from  other  words  and  syllables, 
and  from  other  parts  of  the  concrete.  A  detailed  history  of 
this  limited  application  of  force,  will  be  given  hereafter.  Under 
the  present  section,  its  use  on  phrases  and  sentences,  is  tran- 
siently noticed. 

Writers  on  elocution,  and  school  books  on   the  art  of  reading, 


FORCE  OF  VOICE.  321 

give  general  rules  for  enforcing,  and  reducing  the  voice,  in 
continued  speech.  It  is  not  necessary  to  swell  the  bulk  of  this 
volume,  by  transcribing  them.  We  may  however  inquire,  on 
what  principles  various  degrees  of  force,  are  associated  with  the 
circumstances  of  the  speaker,  or  with  affections  of  the  mind. 

From  the  wide  reach  of  an  intense  exertion  of  the  voice,  there 
is  an  obvious  propriety  in  its  employment,  when  distance  is 
pictured  in  discourse.  The  indication  of  nearness,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  well  expressed  by  an  abatement  of  that  force. 

Secrecy  muffles  the  voice  against  discovery :  and  doubt,  while 
it  leans  towards  a  positive  declaration,  cunningly  prepares  the 
subterfuge  of  an  undertone,  that  the  impression  of  its  possible 
error  may  be  least  exciting  and  durable. 

Certainty,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  full  desire  to  be  heard, 
distinctly  assumes  all  the  impressiveness  of  strength. 

Anger  declares  itself  with  force,  because  its  charges  and 
denials  are  made  with  a  wide  appeal,  and  in  its  own  sincerity  of 
conviction.  A  like  degree  of  force  is  employed  for  passions 
congenial  with  anger ;  as  hate,  ferocity  and  revenge. 

All  sentiments,  unbecoming  or  disgraceful,  smother  the  voice 
to  its  softer  degrees,  in  the  desire  to  conceal  even  the  voluntary 
utterance  of  them. 

Joy  is  loud  in  calling  for  companionship,  through  the  over- 
flowing charity  of  its  satisfaction. 

Bodily  pain,  fear,  and  terror,  are  also  strong  in  their  expres- 
sion ;  ~  with  the  double  intention,  of  summoning  relief,  and 
repelling  the  offending  cause  when  it  is  a  sentient  being.  For 
the  sharpness  and  vehemence  of  the  full-strained  and  piercing 
cry  are  universally  painful  or  appaling  to  the  animal  ear. 

In  thus  suggesting  the  reasons  tvliy  certain  degrees  of  force, 
are  associated  with  certain  states  of  mind,  I  have  perhaps 
ventured  too  far  towards  the  presumptuous  doctrine  of  Final 
Causes.  And  though  we  may  have  therein  transiently  strayed, 
let  us  not  forget  the  duties  of  philosophy.  It  is  her  office,  first 
to  inquire  Iww  things  exist ;  the  knowledge  of  ivhy  they  so  exist, 
must  be  the  last  act  of  favor  which  time  and  toil  will  bestow. 
Our  steps  over  the  works  of  man,  may  go  hand  in  hand  with 


322  FORCE  OF  VOICE. 

the  comprehension  of  their  final  causes ;  for  the  author  can  tell 
us  the  narrow  purpose  of  their  parts.  But  the  great  circle  of 
accommodated  final  causes  in  nature,  will  be  unfolded,  only  in 
the  last  recapitulating  chapter  of  her  infinite  revelation. 

We  defer  for  the  present,  the  subject  of  force  or  stress  on 
single  words  and  syllables,  constituting  Accent  and  Emphasis, 
to  consider  that  remarkable  application  of  stress,  to  different 
imrts  of  the  concrete  syllable  itself.  Experiment  shows  that 
the  varied  effects  of  stress,  are  severally  perceptible,  on  the 
beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  the  concrete  movement, 
or  when  heard  in  immediate  succession  at  its  two  extremes :  that 
the  same  force  may  be  so  continued  throughout  the  concrete,  as 
to  alter  the  characteristic  feebleness  of  the  vanish :  and  that 
while  the  relative  structure  of  the  simple  radical  and  vanish, 
remains  the  same,  force  may  magnify  proportionally  the  whole 
of  the  concrete. 

These  functions  are  severally  denominated,  the  Kadical,  the 
Median,  the  Vanishing,  and  the  Compound,  the  Thorough  stress, 
and  the  Loud  concrete,  as  in  the  following  diagram : 


'^      U 


1  i  t  I  T   I 


where  I  have  endeavored,  visibly  to  illustrate  the  audible  charac- 
ter of  the  forms  of  stress  on  the  concrete,  to  be  described  in  the 
six  following  sections.  The  reader  is  however  to  observe,  that 
for  the  Radical  stress,  the  initial  opening  should  be  repre- 
sented fuller  and  more  abrupt  than  here  shown  by  the  symbol 
of  the  Natural  concrete. 


THE  RADICAL  STRESS.  323 

I 

SECTION  XXXY. 
Oj  the  Radical  Stress. 

The  Radical  stress  consists  in  an  Abrupt  and  forcible  utter- 
ance at  the  beginninor  of  the  concrete  movement. 

The  natural  concrete,  described  in  the  second  section,  and 
here  called  natural,  to  distinguish  it  from  its  stressful  forms,  is 
indeed  represented  in  the  above  diagram,  as  having  an  initial 
fulness ;  but  the  function  now  under  consideration,  is  charac- 
terized by  a  more  sudden  explosion,  at  the  first  opening  of  the 
voice ;  while  the'  subsequent  vanish  is  carried  on  in  the  dimin- 
ishing structure  of  the  natural  concrete.  There  are  so  few 
speakers,  able  to  give  a  radical  stress,  with  this  momentary 
burst,  and  therefore  so  few  who  may  comprehend  the  mere 
description  of  it,  that  I  must  draw  an  illustration  from  the 
effort  of  coughing.  A  single  impulse  of  coughing,  is  not  in  all 
points  exactly  like  the  abrupt  voice  on  syllables ;  for  that  single 
impulse  is  a  forcing  out  of  almost  all  the  breath ;  which  is  not 
the  case  in  syllabic  utterance  :  yet  if  the  tonic  element  a-we  be 
employed  as  the  vocality  of  coughing,  its  abrupt  opening  will 
truly  represent  the  function  of  radical  stress,  Avhen  used  in 
discourse. 

The  clear  and  energetic  radical  stress  must  be  preceded  by  an 
interruption  of  the  voice.  There  seems  to  be  a  momentary 
occlusion  in  the  larynx, —  or,  somewhere,  to  speak  with  caution, 
—  by  which  the  breath  is  barred  and  accumulated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  a  full  and  sudden  discharge.  This  occlusion  is  more 
under  command,  and  the  explosion  is  more  powerful,  on  syllables 
beginning  with  a  tonic  element;  or  with  an  abrupt  one,  preced- 
ing a  tonic :  for  in  this  last  instance,  the  articulative,  if  there  is 
any  difference  in  the  cases,  is  combined  with  the  vocal  occlusion. 
When  a  syllable  begins  with  a  subtonic,  or  with  an  atonic  Avhich 
is  not  abrupt,  the  full  degree  of  explosion  is  not  practicable,  as 


324  THE  RADICAL  STRESS. 

in  manful^  foster.  If  such  words  are  pronounced  with  vehe- 
ment stress,  there  is  always  an  interruption  of  the  voice  after 
the  initial  element,  as  m  or  /,  in  the  examples,  to  allow  the 
succeeding  tonic  the  full  force  of  a  radical  explosion.  This 
account  may  explain  more  particularly  the  part  performed  in 
intonation,  by  subtonic  elements  at  the  beginning  of  syllables. 
It  was  said  in  treating  of  syllabication,  that  the  subtonic  does 
not  always  make  a  part  of  the  concrete  movement :  for  should 
it  have  more  than  a  momentary  quantity,  it  is  continued  upon 
the  same  line  of  pitch,  till  the  succeeding  tonic  opens  with  a 
proper  radical,  and  then  finishes  the  concrete.  This  occurs  on 
most  occasions  ;  for  though  it  is  possible  to  open  a  tonic  with  so 
feeble  a  radical,  that  it  may  seem  absolutely  to  join  itself  with 
a  subtonic,  which  has  previously  risen  partly  through  the  con- 
crete, still  there  is  so  much  of  the  abrupt  fulness  in  the  usual 
utterance  of  a  tonic  element,  that  it  generally  assumes  to  itself 
the  first  point  in  the  interval. 

When  an  immutable  syllable,  beginning  with  a  subtonic,  is 
prolonged  by  oratorical  license,  it  can  be  effected  only  in  two 
ways.  By  continuing  the  subtonic  on  a  level  line  of  pitch,  in 
the  radical  place,  till  the  tonic  opens  with  its  radical,  and  with 
its  vanish  completes  the  syllable.  Or  by  prolonging  the  short 
tonic,  as  the  note  of  song.  Of  these,  the  first  changes  least, 
the  character  of  the  syllable ;  but  in  each,  there  is  a  disagree- 
able drawling  pronunciation.  This  may  be  exemplified  on  the 
words  let  and  ijluck,  when  so  prolonged.  AVe  had  some  years 
ago,  a  Player,  from  abroad,  with  so  many  shocking  faults,  that 
the  Town,  in  unconcious  irony,  was  all  in  an  uproar  about  his 
extraordinary  powers ;  and  who,  when  quantity  was  required  on 
an  immutable  syllable,  always  made  it  in  this  affected  drawl  on  a 
subtonic  element.  I  remember,  the  whole  philosophy  of  this 
Actor's  Histrionism  was  included  in  what  he  and  his  School 
called 'Identity :'  the  meaning,  or  rather  the  empty  mysticism 
of  which  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 

The  power  of  giving  a  strong,  full,  and  clear  radical  stress  to 
a  tonic  element,  is  not  a  common  accomplishment  among 
speakers ;  yet  the  free  and  proper  management  of  this  function 


THE  RADICAL  STRESS.  325 

is  highly  important  in  elocution.  Its  two  principal  purposes 
are,  to  contribute  to  the  clearness  of  articulation ;  and  to  form 
the  distinguishing  accent  and  emphasis  on  immutable  syllables. 
These  syllables  not  allowing  the  slow  concrete,  and  being  incapa- 
ble, as  will  be  shown  hereafter,  of  bearing  the  other  forms  of 
stress,  the  abrupt  or  explosive  enforcement  of  the  radical,  apart 
from  intonation  and  quality,  is  their  only  means  for  emphatic 
distinction. 

Having  pointed  out  the  instrumentality  of  the  radical  stress, 
in  articulation,  this  is  perhaps  the  place  to  consider  the  means 
for  insuring  the  distinct  audibility,  and  elegance  of  syllabic 
pronunciation. 

This  subject  has  three  divisions :  the  First  embraces  a  con- 
sideration of  the  specific  sounds,  which  the  changeable  degrees 
of  human  convention  give  to  the  alphabetic  elements.  The 
Second  regards  the  subject  of  radical  stress :  and  the  Third,  an 
appropriation  of  the  several  constituent  elements  of  a  syllable, 
to  the  concrete  movement. 

The  First  of  these  matters  is  as  yet  under  the  rule  of  any 
body  :  and  until  some  extraordinary  revolution  with  every  body, 
is  therefore  very  properly  to  be  excluded  from  the  discussions  of 
a  philosophy  that  desires  to  be  exact  and  effectual  in  its  instruc- 
tion. How  can  we  hope  to  establish  a  system  of  elemental 
pronunciation  in  a  language,  when  Great  Masters  in  Criticism, 
and  their  whole  School,  condemn  at  once,  every  attempt  in  so 
simple  and  useful  a  labor  as  the  correction  of  its  orthography. 

Supposing  then  the  sound  of  the  elements  to  be  precisely 
what  temporary  authority  has  determined,  the  clearness  of  pro- 
nunciation will  depend, 

Secondly,  on  the  effective  execution  of  the  radical  stress. 
Although  every  element  should  be  heard  in  the  syllabic  impulse, 
yet  the  tonic,  from  its  very  nature,  is  generally  the  most  remark- 
able in  the  compound.  The  characteristic  of  the  syllable, 
therefore,  lies,  in  a  great  measure,  within  this  element ;  and  a 
full  explosive  radical  stress  upon  it,  contributes  much  to  distinct 
enunciation.  It  is  this  which  draws  the  cutting  edge  of  words 
across  the  ear,  and  startles  even  stupor  into  attention :  this, 
which  lessens  the  fatigue  of  listening,  and  out-voices  the  mur- 


326  THE  RADICAL  STRESS. 

mur,  and  imrulj  stir  of  an  assembly :  and  a  sensibility  to  this, 
through  a  general  instinct  of  the  animal  ear  which  gives  author- 
ity to  the  groom,  and  makes  the  horse  submissive  to  his  angry 
accent.  Besides  the  fulness,  loudness,  and  abruptness  of  the 
radical  stress,  when  employed  for  distinct  articulation,  the 
tonic  sound  itself  should  be  a  pure  vocality.  When  mixed 
with  aspiration,  it  loses  the  brilliancy,  that  serves  to  increase 
the  impressive  effect  of  the  explosive  force. 

Third.  The  doctrine  of  syllabication,  set  forth  in  this  essay, 
suggests  additional  means  for  effecting  what  is  called  distinct 
articulation.  In  order  to  insure  a  clear  and  striking  utterance, 
the  whole  syllable  should  not  only  be  suflSciently  loud,  but  each 
elementary  constituent,  rejecting  redundant  elements,  should  be 
so  distinct,  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  confounding  syllables, 
having  the  same  tonic  element,  but  differing  partially  or  univer- 
sally in  their  subtonics.  Now  this  is  effected,  by  distributing 
the  time  and  movement  of  the  concrete,  properly  among  the 
elements  of  the  given  syllable.  This  will  be  best  explained  by 
particular  instances.  I  once  heard  an  Actor  of  great  celebrity, 
pronounce  the  word  plain,  by  prolonging  the  voice  on  I,  and 
then  terminating  the  syllable,  by  a  momentary  transit  on  ain. 
And  though  in  this  case,  I  was  clearly  audible,  yet  the  rapid 
flight  and  blending  of  a  and  n  rendered  the  characteristic  effect 
of  the  whole  syllable  both  faint  and  confused.  One  of  the  con- 
sequences of  this  pronunciation,  and  it  was  a  common  fault  with 
the  popular  Actor  to  whom  I  allude,  was,  that  on  turning  his 
face  from  the  audience  while  speaking,  many  of  his  words, 
though  forcible  enough  in  mere  sound,  were  unintelligible  to  an 
attentive  ear,  at  medium  distances  in  the  theatre.  A  practice 
like  this  obstructs  the  equable  flow  of  the  concrete,  and  over- 
rules the  proper  apportionment  of  time  to  the  constituents  of  a 
syllable.  For  when  each  element  of  the  word  plain  has  its  due 
portion  of  time  and  of  the  concrete,  the  pronunciation  will  at 
once  be  distinct. 

The  principles  of  articulate  utterance  under  this  third  head, 
may  be  exemplified  in  the  following  sentence : 

Not  that  I  loved  Caesar  less,  but  that  I  loved  Rome  more. 


t 


THE  RADICAL  STRESS.  327 

If  we  give  emphatic  importance  to  the  word  more,  solely  by 
the  extent  of  quantity,  and  not  by  peculiarity  of  intonation : 
and  if  this  quantity  be  spread  upon  an  unequal  wave  of  the 
rising  second  and  falling  fifth,  with  a  view  to  give  a  feeble 
cadence  to  the  dignified  protraction  of  the  word :  then,  in 
apportionment  of  the  elements,  if  m  should  be  carried  through 
the  rise  of  the  second,  and  continued  downward  through  nearly 
the  whole  extent  of  a  fifth,  the  o  and  r  being  rapidly  made  at 
its  termination,  the  word  will  not  be  well  articulated.  But  if 
the  time  of  the  wave  be  divided  into  three  parts  severally  about 
equal,  and  the  w,  o,  and  r  be  respectively  assigned  to  these 
parts,  the  word  will  have  all  required  distinctness. 

Many  immutable  syllables  beginning  with  a  subtonic,  are,  in 
the  current  of  dignified  utterance,  sometimes  prolonged  beyond 
the  limit  of  their  allowable  time.  When  this  practice  is  assumed 
by  oratorical  license,  the  added  quantity  is  generally  expended 
wholly  on  the  initial  subtonic.  Thus  if  the  syllables  not,  met, 
rock,  lit,  that,  and  vie,  be  unusually  prolonged,  there  will  be 
less  departure  from  proper  pronunciation,  by  giving  the  addi- 
tional quantity  to  the  subtonics,  than  to  the  tonics.  Still  there 
will  be  a  want  of  that  distinctness  by  which  a  syllable  is  imme- 
diately recognized  t  for  syllables  are  known  in  part,  by  the 
habit  of  their  quantity,  both  in  the  absolute  time  of  the  whole, 
and  the  comparative  time  of  their  constituent  elements.  Now 
in  each  of  the  above  instances,  the  time  of  the  several  elements 
should  strictly,  be  about  equal,  but  by  supposition,  they  are  not ; 
for  while  the  subtonic  is  unduly  extended,  the  tonic  and  the 
following  abrupt  element  have  only  their  proper  momentary 
duration. 

And  this  disproportionate  time  of  the  elements,  here  assigned 
as  the  cause  of  indistinctness  in  speech,  will  be  shown,  to  be 
still  more  frequently  a  cause  of  inarticulate  pronunciation  in  the 
Singing  voice. 

In  the  instances  of  the  word  flain  and  more,  the  time  of 
the  concrete  should  be  apportioned  equally  among  the  elements  ; 
and  this  is  necessary  for  the  correct  pronunciation  of  many 
other  syllables,  having  a  similar  construction.     But  we  cannot 


328  THE  MEDIAN  STRESS. 

give  a  universal  rule  on  this  point ;  since  such  indefinite  sylla- 
bles, as  men^  run,  lin,  and  gel^  have  their  prolongation  on  the 
subtonic  elements,  and  will  not  bear  addition  to  their  short  tonics. 

The  radical  stress  may  be  exhibited  both  on  immutable  and 
on  indefinite  syllables ;  in  the  former  case,  the  shortness  of 
the  quantity  produces  as  it  were  a  mere  explosive  point  of 
sound. 

This  stress  may  be  given  to  all  concrete  intervals  both  rising 
and  falling,  and  to  the  beginning  of  the  wave. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  must  not  be  understood,  the  radi- 
cal stress  is  used,  merely  to  give  the  distinction  of  loudness  to 
immutable  syllables :  the  enforcement  is  likewise  appropriate  to 
the  various  sentiments  embraced  by  them.  But  this  form  of 
stress  is  more  particularly  a  sign  of  the  highest  degree  of 
passion. 


SECTION  XXXVI. 
Of  the  Median  Stress. 

The  Radical  stress  is  principally  efi'ective  in  distinguishing 
immutable  syllables.  Long  quantities,  admitting  other  means 
for  attracting  the  ear,  more  rarely  require  the  initial  explosive 
fulness.  They  receive  their  stress,  with  greater  embellishment, 
from  an  enforcing  of  the  middle  portion  of  the  concrete  move- 
ment. 

As  a  pause  is  always  the  preface  to  abruptness,  the  explosive 
characteristic  of  the  radical  stress,  cannot  be  employed  during 
the  course  of  a  continuous  movement.  The  Median  stress  is 
therefore  a  gradual  strengthening  and  subsequent  reduction  of 
the  voice,  similar  to  what  is  called  a  Swell  in  the  language  of 


THE  MEDIAN  STRESS.  329 

musical  expression.  There  is  this  diiference  between  them. 
The  swell  of  song  is  sometimes  on  a  note  continued  upon  the 
same  line  of  pitch :  whereas  the  median  stress  is  always  in 
either  an  upward  or  downward  course ;  or  about  the  junction  of 
these  opposite  movements,  in  the  wave. 

This  form  of  force  is  not  applicable  to  all  the  intervals  of  the 
scale.  Its  very  nature  indicates  the  necessity  of  protracted 
quantity  for  its-  execution ;  and  therefore,  that  it  is  generally, 
if  not  always  applied  to  the  waves.  It  might  perhaps  be  dis- 
tinguishable on  the  simple  rise,  and  fall  of  the  fifth  and  octave, 
when  slowly  prolonged.  It  is  not  practicable  on  the  simple  rise 
or  fall  of  the  second ;  for  the  quantity  of  this  interval,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  semitone,  is  rarely  extended  to  any  considerable 
degree  in  its  simple  state.  "When  a  melody  of  these  intervals, 
conveys  a  dignified  sentiment,  the  required  long  quantity,  is  made 
on  their  waves.  In  this  case  the  median  stress  is  applied  to  about 
the  middle  of  the  course  of  the  concretes :  that  is,  about  the 
junction  of  the  two  lines  of  contrary  flexure.  And  what  is 
here  said  of  these  waves,  must  be  understood  of  the  wave  of 
every  interval.  When  the  median  stress  is  applied  to  the  double 
wave,  it  is  laid  on  the  course  of  a  downward  or  an  upward  con- 
stituent, as  the  wave  may  be  direct  or  inverted ;  for  such 
constituent  will  be,  in  each  case,  respectively,  the  middle 
portion  of  its  whole  extent. 

The  median  stress  is  applicable  to  the  intervals  of  the  tremu- 
lous scale :  and  in  effect,  only  enforces  by  greater  loudness,  the 
tittles  in  the  middle  of  any  given  interval,  or  at  the  junction  of 
a  sinorle  wave,  or  on  the  middle  constituent  of  a  double  one. 
When  thus  employed,  it  adds  impressiveness  to  the  sentiments 
signified  by  the  tremor,  and  affords  variety  to  the  ear. 

Inasmuch  as  force,  under  any  form,  may  be  used  with  other 
means  of  expression,  its  principal  purpose,  in  combination,  is  to 
enhance  the  power  of  those  other  means.  Thus  the  median 
stress  on  the  wave  of  the  second,  gives  dignity  to  the  diatonic 
melody :  on  the  wave  of  the  semitone,  it  adds  to  its  plaintive- 
ness :  on  the  downward  fifth  and  octave,  it  adds  to  the  degree  of 
its  wonder  or  positiveness :  on  the  rising  fifth  and  octave,  it 
*  22 


330  THE  MEDIAN  STRESS. 

sharpens  the  spirit  of  interrogation :  and  on  the  -wider  -waves,  it 
gives  dignity  and  force  to  their  several  expressions.  Such  is 
like-wise  the  effect  of  the  radical  stress,  and  with  an  energy 
sometimes  amounting  even  to  violence.  But  the  median  stress 
now  under  consideration,  sets  forth  intensity  of  voice,  with 
greater  dignity  than  all  the  other  forms  of  force.  The  radical 
stress  having  an  abrupt  opening,  and  the  vanishing,  as  will  be 
shown  presently,  having  a  sudden  termination,  there  is  a  sharp 
earnestness  in  their  manner,  not  conveyed  by  the  median :  the 
aim  and  power  of  which  'in  the  very  torrent  of  expression,'  is 
to  'beget  a  temperance  which  may  give  it  smoothness.' 

Here  pardon  me,  reader,  when  I  pass  from  instruction  to 
eulogy. 

If  she  could  now  be  heard,  I  would  point  in  illustration  to 
Britain's  great  Mistress  of  the  voice.  Since  that  cannot  be, 
let  those  who  have  not  forgotten  the  stately  dignity  of  Mrs. 
Siddons,  bear  witness  to  the  effect  of  the  graceful  vanish  of  her 
concrete,  and  of  that  swelling  energy,  by  which  she  richly 
enforced  the  expression  of  joy,  and  surprise,  and  indignation. 
But  why  should  I  be  so  sparing  in  praise,  as  to  select  her  emi- 
nent exemplification  of  the  single  subject  before  us ;  when  it 
seems  to  my  recollection,  a  whole  volume  of  elocution  might  be 
taught  by  her  instances. 

It  is  apparently  a  partial  rule  of  criticism,  but  when  drawn 
from  delicate  perceptions,  enlightened  by  cultivation,  it  is  the 
best,  to  measure  the  merit  of  Actors,  by  their  ability  to  give 
with  audible  conformity,  that  same  expression  of  the  poet,  which 
the  soul  of  the  hearer  is  whispering  to  itself.  Such  is  the  rule, 
that  in  my  early  days  of  ignorance,  but  not  of  insensibility,  set 
up  this  great  Woman's  voice,  as  a  mirror  for  every  trait  of 
thought  and  feeling,  in  which  one  might  recognize  his  deep, 
unuttcred  sympathy,  and  love  the  flattering  picture  as  his  own. 
All  that  is  smooth,  and  flexible,  and  various  in  intonation ;  all 
that  is  impressive  in  force,  and  in  long-drawn  time  ;  all  that  is 
apt  upon  the  countenance,  and  consonant  in  gesture,  gave  their 
united  energy,  and  gracefulness  and  grandeur,  to  this  one  great 
model  of  Ideal  Elocution.     Her's  was  that  hight  of  excellence, 


THE  MEDIAN  STRESS.  331 

which,  defying  mimickry,  can  be  made  imaginable  only  by  being 
equalled. 

Such  was  my  enthusiastic  opinion,  before  a  scrutiny  into 
speech  had  developed  a  boundless  scheme  of  criticism  and  in- 
struction ;  which,  in  admitting  that  nature  may  hold  within  her 
laws,  the  unrevealed  power  of  producing  occasional  instances  of 
rare  accomplishment  of  voice  ;  yet  assures  us,  that  nothing  but  the 
influence  of  some  system  of  principles,  founded  on  a  knowledge  of 
those  laws,  can  ever  produce  multiplied  examples  of  excellence, 
or  give  to  any  one  the  perfection  of  art.  There  is  a  pervading 
energy  in  science  which  searches,  discovers,  amplifies,  and  com- 
pletes ;  and  which  all  the  untrained  strength  of  spontaneous 
eflfort  can  never  reach.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  asked,  how  this 
'most  noble  mother'  of  her  Art, —  with  only  those  unwritten 
rules  of  genius,  that  still  allowed  her  to  incur  the  dangers  of  the 
scanty  doctrines  of  her  School, —  would  be  accounted  by  the  side 
of  another  Siddons,  making  her  selections  of  sentiment  and 
taste,  from  the  familiar  rudiments  and  measurable  functions  of 
the  voice  ;  and  able  by  the  authority  of  an  unindulgent  discipline 
to  be  a  rational  critic  over  herself.  With  a  full  reliance  on  the 
surpassing  efficacy  of  scientific  instruction,  still  in  the  content- 
ment of  recollection,  I  would  not  wish  to  answer  this  question. 

The  vision  of  the  Great  Actress  is  before  me !  If  I  am  beset 
by  an  illusion,  which  another  hearing  might  dispel,  I  rejoice  to 
think  I  can  never  hear  her  again.* 

•  In  the  title  '  most  noble  mother,'  I  refer  to  the  salutation  of  Coriolanus  to 
Volumnia :  for  it  is  in  this  character  Mrs.  Siddons  always  comes  like  a  speak- 
ing picture,  upon  my  memory ;  embodying  the  pathos,  the  matron  dignity,  and 
the  indignation,  together  with  the  other  moral  solemnities  of  the  scene  of 
intercession  in  the  Volcian  camp. 


332  THE  VANISHING  STRESS. 


SECTION  XXXVII. 
Of  the  Vanishing  Stress. 

Our  description  of  the  concrete  of  speecli,  represented  it  as 
formed  by  an  initial  fulness,  and  a  gradual  decrease.  Now,  the 
construction  indicated  by  the  term  Vanishing  Stress,  violates 
this  usual  law  of  the  concrete.  But  I  thought,  the  term,  even 
with  its  verbal  contrariety,  would  be  more  immediately  intelligi- 
ble, if  not  more  exactly  significative  of  the  function,  than  any 
other  more  logical  nomenclature.  The  vanishing  stress  does 
indeed  exhibit  a  reversed  progression  of  force,  by  its  gradual 
increase  from  the  radical,  to  the  extreme  of  the  vanish,  both  in 
its  rising  and  falling  direction.  This  must  necessarily  give 
something  like  an  abrupt  termination,  with  a  fulness  of  sound, 
at  the  extremity  of  the  concrete. 

The  peculiar  vocal  effect  of  the  vanishing  stress  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  natural  function  of  Hiccough.  Indeed,  this  hie, 
or  '  AeYc/i'-cough  has  received  a  conventional  name,  that  by  its 
etymology,  describes  its  very  nature ;  and  from  its  being  instinc- 
tively practicable,  may  be  the  subject  of  experiment.  The 
hiccough,  then,  is  jiroduced  by  the  gradual  increase  of  the 
guttural  sound,  until  it  is  suddenly  obstructed  by  an  occluded 
catch,  somewhat  resembling  the  element  h,  or  g :  and  if  it  be 
compared  with  a  single  effort  of  the  common  cough,  it  will 
in  abruptness,  exemplify  the  reverse  difference  between  the  van- 
ishing and  the  radical  stress.  The  hiccough  however,  does 
not,  in  all  points,  resemble  the  proper  vanishing  stress  of 
speech,  except  the  syllable  which  bears  the  stress,  terminates 
with  an  abrupt  element.  The  hiccough  may  be  made  on  all 
intervals  of  the  scale.  In  ordinary  cases,  it  assumes  that  of 
the  second  or  third:  but  when  attended  witli  great  distress,  as 
sometimes  happens  in  disease,  it  is  heard  through  the  interval  of 
the  semitone. 


THE  VANISHING  STRESS.  333 

The  effect  of  the  vanishing  stress  may  be  perceived  in  the 
speech  of  the  natives  of  Ireland;  many  of  whom  apply  it  to 
the  simple  rise  or  fall,  or  wave,  on  all  the  principal  words  of 
a  sentence.  It  is  this  function  which  produces  that  quick  and 
peculiar  jerk  of  syllabic  sound,  heard  in  the  earnest  pronuncia- 
tion of  the  ignorant  ranks  of  that  people. 

The  vanishing  stress  is  practicable  on  all  the  rising  and  fall- 
ing intervals  of  the  scale.  On  the  wave,  it  is  applied  to  the  last 
constituent. 

This  stress  being  one  of  the  forms  of  force,  it  gives  to  the 
several  intervals,  a  more  attractive  power  over  the  ear,  than 
belongs  to  their  natural  concretes.  Thus  to  the  plain  inexpres- 
sive second,  it  only  adds  that  Irish  jerk  which  deforms  without 
enforcing  speech.  On  the  rising  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  it  gives 
intensity  to  the  spirit  of  interrogation.  On  the  downward  course 
of  these  intervals,  it  enhances  the  degree  of  surprise  and  posi- 
tiveness ;  and  on  the  wave,  adds  force  to  the  expression  of  its 
various  forms. 

The  effect  of  the  vanishing  stress  on  a  semitone,  may  be  heard 
in  the  act  of  Sobbing.  This  is  made  on  a  concrete  guttural 
sound,  gradually  increasing  in  force  and  terminated  in  some 
cases  by  the  occluded  catch.  Now  the  vanishing  stress  on  the 
semitone  in  discourse,  is,  as  it  were,  a  sobbing  upon  words,  and 
serves  to  mark  intensively,  the  plaintive  character  of  the  simple 
concrete. 

The  nature  of  discourse  occasionally  requires  so  quick  a  time, 
that  only  the  simple  rise  or  fall  can  be  employed :  and  yet,  it 
may  be  necessary  to  designate  clearly,  the  terminative  points  of 
the  interval.  This  is  accomplished  by  the  vanishing  stress.  For 
a  hasty  utterance  of  complaint  or  interrogation,  which  has  time 
for  flight  only  in  one  direction,  will,  for  the  purpose  of  marking 
emphatically  the  extent  of  the  interval,  apply  this  terminative 
force  to  the  simple  rise  or  fall  of  the  semitone,  third,  fifth,  or 
octave. 

It  was  stated, —  the  radical  stress  is  effective,  principally  in 
distinguishing  immutable  syllables.  On  these  the  vanishing 
stress  is  not  cognizable.     It  requires  a  longer  time ;  and  its 


334  THE  COMPOUND  STRESS. 

application  thereon,  gives  an  equal  degree  of  force  with  the 
median  stress  :  but  it  has  much  less  dignity  and  grace  than  the 
gradual  swell  of  this  last  named  elegant  manner  of  forcible 
expression. 


SECTION  XXXVIII. 
Of  the  Compound  Stress. 

Besides  the  obvious  effect  of  stress,  when  laid  exclusively  on 
the  beginning,  or  middle,  or  end  of  the  concrete,  the  cultivated 
and  attentive  ear,  recognizes  the  abrupt  opening  of  the  radical, 
and  the  full  termination  of  the  vanishing  stress,  when  used  in 
succession  on  the  same  syllable,  both  in  a  rising  and  falling 
direction.  The  best  reference,  for  illustrating  this  Compound 
stress,  is  to  what  vocalists  call  a  Shake :  for  I  shall  endeavor  to 
show  hereafter,  that  the  characteristic  of  this  Grace  of  Song, 
consists  in  a  rapid  iteration  of  the  concrete  of  speech,  when  im- 
pressed with  both  the  radical  and  vanishing  stresses. 

The  compound  stress,  though  scarcely  applicable  to  the  nar- 
row intervals  of  the  scale,  is  distinguishable,  on  the  wider  spaces 
of  the  fifth,  and  octave.  It  may  likewise  be  executed  on  the 
various  forms  of  the  wave ;  the  final  stress  being  then  laid  on 
the  last  constituent. 

After  what  has  been  said  of  the  radical  and  the  vanishing 
stress,  this  under  consideration  being  but  a  compound  of  them, 
it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark,  that  it  affords  means  for 
adding  energy  to  the  sentiments  indicated  by  each  simple  con- 
stituent. And  although  the  effect  of  a  rapid  alternation  of  the 
radical  and  vanishing  stress,  is  beautifully  exemplified  in  the 
shake  of  song,  and  may  be  deliberately  shown  in  the  speaking 
voice ;  yet  this  compound  function  cannot,  on  a  short  quantity. 


THE  THOROUGH  STRESS.  335 

be  distinguished  from  the  simple  radical  abruptness :  nor  indeed 
is  there,  in  this  case,  time  for  its  existence. 

Let  us  suppose,  a  syllable  of  long  quantity  embracing 
the  sentiment  of  angry  or  authoritative  inquiry ;  and  that 
the  fifth,  'with  protracted  intonation,  is  the  interval  chosen  for 
this  interrogative.  The  force  required  here  as  the  sign  of 
anger  or  authority,  would  be  represented  by  the  radical  stress, 
while  the  full-marked  extent  of  the  interval  under  the  increased 
force  of  the  vanish,  would  give  a  corresponding  energy  and  im- 
pressiveness  to  the  interrogation.  The  compound  stress  is 
however,  by  no  means  an  agreeable  form  of  stress.  There  is  a 
snappishness  in  its  character,  that  should  always  be  avoided  by 
a  good  reader,  except  on  those  rare  occasions,  which  especially 
call  for  the  peculiarity  of  its  expression. 


SECTION  XXXIX. 

Of  the   Thorough  Stress. 

By  this  form  of  force  on  the  concrete,  we  are  to  understand, 
a  continuation  of  the  same  full  body  of  voice  throughout  its 
whole  course.  It  may  be  applied  to  all  the  rising  and  falling 
intervals,  and  in  continuation  to  the  several  constituents  of  the 
wave. 

The  effect  of  this  stress  may  be  perceived,  by  rising  an  octave, 
with  the  same  volume  of  voice  through  its  whole  ascent,  and 
comparing  it  with  the  proper  radical  and  vanishing  octave, 
as  represented  by  the  first  and  last  symbols,  in  the  foregoing 
diagram.  The  peculiar  character  of  this  continued  volume,  will 
not  only  be  apparent,  but  the  interrogative  effect  of  the  octave 
will  be  greatly  obscured  by  it :  for  the  tFue  interrogative  inter- 


33G  THE  THOROUGH  STRESS. 

val  is,  through  habit,  known  to  the  ear,  by  its  attenuated  vanish, 
as  well  as  by  its  extent. 

The  thorough  stress  may  perhaps  be  occasionally  used  for 
some  particular  purpose  of  forcible  emphasis,  especially  when 
applied  to  short  quantities.  Its  general,  and  more  remarkable 
character  on  a  long  quantity,  is  that  of  uncouth  and  rustic 
coarseness :  and  if  I  may  so  speak,  its  blunt  impression  on  the 
ear,  seems  related  to  the  delicate  eifect  of  the  equable  concrete, 
as  a  hard  ehaucJiing  on  the  canvas,  to  the  tinted  color,  and 
blended  lights  and  shadows  of  the  finished  picture.  With  an 
exception  of  the  case  stated  above,  it  is  to  be  employed  only  for 
the  vocal  personation  of  those,  with  whom,  as  a  coarse  deformity 
of  speech,  it  is  natural.  From  time  almost  immemorial,  every 
man,  and  every  class  of  men  has  tried  in  vain,  to  satisfy  the 
anxious  inquirer,  as  to  the  exact,  and  comprehensible  character 
of  the  true  Christian,  the  honest  Patriot,  and  the  real  Gentle- 
man. In  the  last  case.  Aristocracy  and  Democracy,  those 
eternal  combatants,  have  always  been  the  most  remote  from 
agreement.  The  latter  however,  particularly  in  our  country  of 
Equal  Rights,  Tyrannical  Corporations,  and  Despotic  Majorities, 
having  come  to  a  unanimity,  has  at  last  with  a  popular  logic, 
given  the  acceptable  definition ;  and  thus  terminated  all  invi- 
dious distinctions,  by  making  every  man  a  Gentleman,  and 
every  Woman  a  Lady.  Leaving  others  to  review  the  Census  of 
this  vast  and  novel  Genus,  on  those  points  that  may  have  fallen 
under  their  discriminating  observation ;  it  is  only  our  part,  to 
perceive  among  all  the  generic  similarities,  some  specific  differ- 
ences of  Intonation.  For  if  that  affable  address,  that  refined 
reply,  that  vocal  invitation  to  a  Avell-bred  sociability,  that  deli- 
cate vanish  which  gently  passes  from  the  ear  to  the  heart ;  if  in 
short,  the  kindly  meaning  of  that  equable  concrete,  is  different 
from  that  clownish  answer,  which,  figuratively,  repels  us  with  a 
vocal  frown ;  that  coldness  of  thought,  and  death  of  every  sen- 
timent, which  are  all  embraced  within  the  thorough  stress : 
Then  is  he  who  has  the  graciousness  of  speech,  that  seems  to 
change  the  stranger  at  once  into  the  friend,  a  world-wide  differ- 
ent from  that  laconic  Dog  in  office,  with  his  surly  no,  that 


THE  THOROUGH  STRESS.  337 

fool-wealthy  Ignoramus,  with  his  bluff  command ;  and  in  soul 
as  well  as  in  voice,  from  the  coarse  and  vicious  vulgarity  of  that 
hitherto  unknown  species,  in  progressive  creation,  the  American 
Rowdy.* 

I  do  not  say,  the  man  who  has  no  vanish  in  his  voice,  is  fit 
for  '  stratagems  and  spoils  :'  But  I  do  believe,  that  if  Shakspeare 

*  With  this  Rowdy, —  who  practically  personifies  a  compliment  to  our  aston- 
ishing advancement  in  Morality,  Refinement,  Legislative  Energy,  Law,  and  in 
Statesman-Supervision, —  the  rudeness  of  the  stressful  concrete,  is  a  natural  gift. 
Gipsies  and  thieves  of  the  Old  World,  have  a  conventional  slang,  for  misleading 
the  fearless  search  of  justice.  But  the  surpassing  Rowdy  of  the  New,  knowing 
himself  to  be  above  the  law,  boldly  writes  his  threatning  titles  on  our  walls, 
and  openly  proclaims  the  watch-word  of  his  conspiring  Crew.  Among  these 
words,  so  called  from  some  conceit  or  other,  are  Boy,  and  Sir.  Now  both  of 
these  allow  a  delicate  execution  of  the  vanish.  This  however  is  not  suited  to 
the  Rowdy's  character :  and  nature,  true  to  her  signs  of  the  good  and  the  bad, 
directs  him,  by  another  instinct,  to  give  these  words,  the  coarse  intonation  of 
the  thorough  stress.  This  coming  to  the  mouths  of  the  populace,  they  have 
made  an  awkward  imitation  of  the  thorough,  by  taking  up  the  words  with  some- 
thing like  the  compound  stress.  And  this,  leading  to  a  division  of  the  words 
into  two  syllables,  has  given  us  the  vulgar  slang  of  the  streets,  as  we  every 
where  hear  it,  in  Bo-hoi  and  Sir-ee. 

The  full,  and  the  hair-stroke  lines  of  the  graceful  old  copper-plate  letter,  and 
some  of  the  deformities  of  modern  type,  afford  symbols  for  these  different  states 
of  the  concrete.  A  love  of  variety  among  conventual  Scribes  once  perverted 
and  distorted  the  Roman  alphabet  almost  beyond  recognition.  The  same  effort 
to  overwhelm  taste  with  novelty,  is  now  in  progress  by  the  Sign-painter,  and 
the  Printer  of  placards.  Among  a  thousand  awkward  oddities  of  the  Type- 
founder, we  can  find  something  just  to  our  purpose.  The  well-finished  form  of 
Roman  capitals,  and  punctuation,  with  their  full,  and  their  vanishing  lines, 
contrast  remarkably,  as  in  the  following  diagram,  with  their  rowdy-looking 
counterparts ;  designed  under  that  Widely-Destructive  Principle,  in  Popular 
Taste,  of — '  Something  New.'     Perhaps  it  may  be  a  fancy ;  but  the  Roman  c 


reminds  me  of  the  equable  concrete ;  and  its  rowdy  modern  improvement,  of 
the  thorough  stress.  In  short,  the  contrast  suggests  to  us,  the  difference 
between  that  graceful  and  celebrated  Line  by  Apellcs,  and  the  rudeness  of 
a  crooked  billet. 


338  THE  LOUD  CONCRETE. 

had  chosen  to  look  as  far  into  speech,  as  he  did  into  thought, 
sentiment,  and  language ;  he  would  have  seen  that  nature  has, 
in  the  human  voice,  her  especial  sign  of  the  Boorish  and  Unruly, 
as  well  as  of  the  Unmusical  soul ;  and  would,  in  some  of  his  own 
fine  analytic  metaphors,  if  not  by  explanatory  science,  long  ago 
have  described  it. 

In  closing  this  section,  we  may  once  more  contrast  the  intona- 
tion of  his  rude  temper,  who  asks  for  nothing,  but  who  with 
violence  would  seize  on  every  thing,  by  comparing  it  with  the  crav- 
ing voice  of  the  Hypocrite  and  the  Sycophant,  insinuating  their 
several  ways  to  authority  and  favor.  The  Rowdy  more  true  to 
his  own  nature,  uses  the  heavy  stress,  to  alarm  the  unwary,  and 
is  then  ready  to  break  through  all  opposition.  While  the 
subtilty  of  the  others,  without  a  warning  rattle  to  the  uncon- 
scious dupe,  abuses  the  kind  and  honorable  purpose  of  the  social 
vanish,  by  its  servile  excess,  and  its  puling  application  to  every 
variety  of  sense  and  feeling. 


SECTION  XL. 

Of  the  Loud  Concrete. 

By  the  Loud  Concrete,  I  mean  that  stress  which  distinguishes 
a  given  syllable  from  adjacent  ones ;  the  parts  of  the  concrete 
still  retaining  the  comparative  structure  of  the  radical  and 
vanish.  It  is,  in  short,  what  was  called  the  natural  concrete, 
magnified,  if  we  may  so  speak,  by  emphatic  stress.  It  is  not  dis- 
tinguishable on  a  very  short  quantity ;  the  radical  stress  being, 
there,  the  proper  form  of  force. 

As  far  as  I  perceive,  it  has  no  peculiar  character  of  expres- 
sion. But  as  a  function  of  the  voice,  it  will  be  referred  to,  in  a 
future  section,  on  accent. 


THE  TIME  OF  THE  CONCRETE.  339 

All  the  forms  of  sti-ess,  thus  enumerated,  may  be  applied  to 
the  tremor  of  the  simple  intervals,  and  of  the  wave :  thereby 
iriving  a  more  marked  expression  to  the  gaiety  of  laughter,  the 
plaintiveness  of  crying  and  speech ;  to  tremulous  emphasis,  and 
to  interrogation. 


SECTION  XLI. 
Of  the  Time  of  the  Concrete, 

The  radical  and  vanishing  movement  was  represented  as 
having  an  equable  continuation  of  time  throughout  its  progress ; 
and  thereby  distinguished  from  the  radical  and  prolonged  vanish, 
in  Song. 

The  purposes  of  expression  sometimes  demand  a  change  of 
this  equability  of  the  concrete,  into  a  quicker  utterance  of  its 
beginning,  or  middle,  or  end.  This  condition  of  time  is  closely 
connected  with  an  application  of  the  diiferent  forms  of  stress : 
for  it  is  difficult  to  give  stress  without  running  into  quickness 
of  time  ;  and  as  difficult  to  give  quickness  to  time  Avithout  mark- 
ing the  rapid  part  of  the  concrete  with  stress.  The  relation  of 
these  functions  is  most  conspicuous  in  the  radical  stress ;  for  its 
sudden  burst  is  necessarily  followed  by  a  momentary  quickness 
of  utterance.  The  median  and  the  vanishing  stress,  when 
strongly  emphatic,  likewise  carry  with  them  a  rapid  run  of 
time  :  for  there  is  in  these  cases,  an  endeavor,  however  fruitless, 
to  effect,  on  an  unbroken  concrete,  the  explosive  nature  of  the 
radical.  These  fitful  gusts  of  breath  through  the  radical, 
median,  and  vanishing  places,  may  be  employed,  like  the  stress 
itself  which  respectively  accompanies  them,  on  all  the  intervals 
of  the  scale,  and  at  those  points  of  the  wave  wh  ere  the  stress  is 


340  THE  ASPIRATION.  , 

applied.  There  may  also  be  a  compound  quick  time  of  the 
concrete,  attendant  on  the  compound  stress,  in  the  prolonged 
movements  of  speech.  But  perhaps  this  is  only  a  refinement 
in  observation. 

On  the  "whole,  regarding  the  time  of  the  concrete  separately 
from  stress,  it  is  not  of  any  practical  importance,  in  expression. 
It  was  my  purpose  to  give  a  history  of  speech.  This  quickness 
was  perceived ;  and  it  is  therefore  transiently  noticed. 


SECTION  XLII. 
Of  the  Aspiration. 
We  have  thus  far  learned,  how  the  five  modes  of  vocal  sound 


Quality,  Time,  Pitch,  Abruptness,  and  Force,  together  with  the 
absence  of  all  impression  in  the  Pause,  do  by  their  separate  and 
their  mingled  influences  produce  the  varied  effects  of  speech 
already  described. 

The  works  of  nature  are  infinite  patterns  of  permutation ; 
and  the  function  now  to  be  considered,  will  show  additional 
means  for  diversifying  the  effect  of  those  signs  of  expression, 
heretofore  described.  The  subject  of  this  section  does  properly 
belong  to  the  head  of  quality  of  voice.  But  since  it  has  received 
a  place  and  name  among  the  alphabetic  elements,  and  has  pecu- 
liar properties,  it  has  here  a  separate  notice.  I  shall  therefore 
endeavor  to  show  that  the  element  denoted  by  the  letter  h,  or, 
as  it  is  called,  the  Aspiration,  has  eminent  powers  of  force  and 
expression. 

By  calling  h  a  mere  breathing,  some  authors  imagine  they 
insure  the  right  to  reject  this  element  from  the  alphabet.  Let 
it  be  said  in  truth,  that  aspiration,  as  a  separate  and  unemphatic 
element,  is  feeble,  and  has  not  the  tunable  and  flexile  vocality 


THE  ASPIRATION.  341 

of  tlie  tonics.  But  while  harrow  and  arrow  shall  owe  the 
difference  in  their  meanings  respectively  to  the  presence  and 
absence  of  the  element,  that  mere  breathing  will  fulfill  the  pur- 
pose of  articulation,  though  it  may  not  conform  to  the  exact 
definition  of  it.  Notwithstanding,  the  defects  of  the  aspiration 
cannot  be  denied,  under  the  cold  measurement  of  orthoepy,  it 
is  still  pre-eminently  entitled  to  notice,  as  a  powerful  agent  in 
oratorical  expression. 

The  element  h  is  slightly  susceptible  of  pitch  and  abrupt- 
ness ;  while  it  freely  admits  of  prolonged  quantity.  In  this 
form,  it  furnishes  the  expressive  interjection  of  Sighing.  It 
admits,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  variations  of  force  ;  and  under  the 
calls  of  emphasis,  is  remarkably  displayed  on  the  median  stress. 
In  uncompounded  words  it  is  generally  found  at  their  beginning ; 
where  its  force  may  be  more  effectually  exerted ;  especially  in 
words  having  universally  an  energetic  meaning,  as  havoc,  horror 
and  huzza.  It  is  combined  with  most  of  the  interjections,  in 
all  languages. 

Besides  the  above  mentioned  instances  of  its  expression,  where 
common  orthography  has  given  it  a  literal  place,  it  is  in  certain 
cases  of  emphasis,  engrafted  on  the  several  tonics  and  subtonics. 
For  though  aspiration,  as  we  have  seen,  does  with  its  literal 
symbol,  serve  the  purpose  of  a  distinct  constituent  of  words ; 
yet  it  may  even  without  the  symbol,  be  severally  united  with 
elements  having  a  vocality,  without  destroying  their  individual 
characters.  The  pure  quality  of  the  tonic  is  indeed  impaired 
by  the  union ;  for  the  perfection  of  a  tonic  element  was  nega- 
tively defined,  by  declaring  its  freedom  from  aspiration :  but 
compensation  for  the  loss  of  purity  is  made  by  other  advantages 
of  the  combination. 

There  is  some  unknown  mechanism  of  speech,  by  which  the 
strenuous  pronunciation  of  a  tonic  element  becomes  semi- 
aspirated.  If  the  word  liorrihle  be  deprived  of  its  aspirate,  it 
will  be  impossible  to  give  the  fragment  orrible,  in  prolonged  and 
energetic  exclamation,  without  restoring  in  a  great  degree,  the 
abstracted  element.  The  question,  how  far  this  unavoidable 
combination  operated  to  introduce  the  aspirated  element,  for  the 


342  THE  ASPIRATION. 

forcible  expression  of  animal  feeling,  at  the  date  of  -what  is 
called  the  origin  of  language,  we  leave  to  the  everlasting  dis- 
putes of  those  who  look  for  truth  in  fancy,  and  who  teaze 
themselves  in  the  pursuit  of  undiscoverable  things. 

Vociferations  on  syllables  which  do  not  contain  the  symbol  of 
aspiration,  nevertheless  assume  it,  and  corrupt  thereby  the  pure  j 
character  of  the  tonics.  Nay,  in  the  excessive  force  of  such  ex- 
ertion of  the  organs,  the  voice  is  sometimes  lost,  from  the  atonic 
aspiration  overruling  the  tonic  vocality.  The  nature  of  these 
united  functions,  thus  exhibited  in  the  vehement  force  of  the 
voice,  may  be  illustrated  by  the  subtonics  3/-e,  and  w-o,  respec- 
tively a  compound  of  aspiration  with  the  monothongs  ee-l,  and 
oo-ze.  The  other  three  monothongs  e-rr,  e-nd,  i-n,  when  united 
with  the  aspiration,  become  obscurely  the  basis  of  the  several 
other  subtonics.  And  although  the  subtonics  are  thus  formed 
by  the  mingling  of  vocalities  with  aspiration,  they  may  yet 
receive  further  aspiration,  for  the  purpose  of  energetic  ex- 
pression. 

The  dipthongal  tonics  do  not  receive  the  aspiration  with  the 
same  effect  as  the  monothongs :  since  there  is  something  in  their 
nature,  that  prevents  as  great  a  change  upon  them  as  takes 
place  on  the  monothongs,  by  a  union  with  aspiration. 

It  was  shown  formerly  that  whispering,  which  is  only  the  articu- 
lated form  of  aspiration,  has  its  pitch,  upon  a  succession  of 
different  alphabetic  elements.  Now  whatever  may  be  the  diffi- 
culties of  its  intonation,  when  articulated,  it  does  when  joined 
with  the  tonics,  move  concretely  through  all  the  intervals  of  the 
scale,  and  unite  itself  with  every  form  of  stress. 

In  order  to  show  how  far  this  function  assists  in  the  expres- 
sion of  speech,  let  us  keep  in  mind  what  was  said  above,  on  the 
instinctive  union  of  a  vehement  exertion  of  the  voice,  with  its 
aspiration;  and  consider  further,  two  forms  under  which  the 
simple  aspiration  is  employed. 

One  is  a  sort  of  facetious  comment  of  surprise  and  incredulity, 
in  common  use,  consisting  of  an  effort  of  aspiration  modified  by 
the  tongue  and  lips,  into  what  I  formerly  called  the  sufflated 
whisper.     The  movement  of  this  sufflated  interjection  is  that  of 


THE  ASPIRATION.  343 

an  unequal  direct  wave :  the  first  constituent  being  a  tone  or 
wider  interval,*  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  expression ;  and 
the  second  a  descent  to  the  lowest  audible  pitch. 

The  other  effort  of  aspiration,  is  made  by  the  larynx  alone, 
and  constitutes  the  function  of  Sighing.  It  consists  of  a  simple 
inspiration,  followed  by  an  expiration,  more  or  less  prolonged 
through  a  falling  second  or  wider  interval,  according  to  the 
intensity  of  feeling.  A  sigh  is  the  well  known  vocal  sign  of 
distress,  grief,  and  anxiety  ;  and  of  fatigue  and  exhaustion,  both 
of  body  and  mind.  Since  these  different  cases  include  the  gene- 
ral powers  of  expression,  in  the  simple  and  natural  aspiration, 
we  can  infer  what  will  be  the  effect  when  this  aspiration  is 
joined  with  the  vocality  of  speech. 

It  may  seem,  but  can  only  seem,  to  be  an  exception  to  the 
consistencies  of  nature,  that  a  quality  of  voice,  which,  under  a 
quiet  whisper,  serves  the  purpose  of  concealment,  should  be  found 
united  with  vocality  in  the  most  forcible  exertion  of  speech. 
Such,  however,  is  the  fact ;  for  aspiration  conjoined  with  the 
vehement  forms  of  stress,  becomes  a  sign  of  great  vocal  energy. 
Its  union  therefore  with  a  rising  or  falling  interval  of  the 
scale,  in  the  natural  voice,  increases  the  expressive  power  of 
that  interval ;  and  perhaps,  adds  the  sentiment  of  eagerness,  or 
sneer  to  intonations,  that,  in  their  purely  vocal  form,  severally 
convey  surprise,  interrogation,  irony,  and  command. 

Should  this  union  of  aspiration  with  vocality  be  given  with  an 
abatement  of  voice,  thereby  approximating  towards  a  whisper  or 
a  sigh,  it  will  produce  a  difference  of  expression,  according  to 
the  extent  of  its  pitch.  When  a  second  or  wider  interval  is  em- 
ployed, it  becomes  the  sign  of  earnestness  or  of  apprehension. 
Thus  if  the  following  lines  be  pronounced  with  a  pure  vocality 
of  the  elements,  they  will  not  express  the  earnest  sentiment  of 
the  speaker. 

Hah!  dost  thou  not  see,  by  the  moon's  trembling  light, 
Directing  his  steps,   where  advances  a  knight, 

His  eye  big  with  vengeance  and  fate  ? 

Nor  would  the  point  be  gained,  if  the  reading  should  be 
characterized  by  an  aspirated  vociferation.     When  the  utterance 


344  THE  EMPHATIC  VOCULE. 

is  reduced  in  force,  and  at  the  same  time  aspirated,  the  earnest- 
ness of  the  appealing  interrogation,  becomeS  immediately 
obvious. 

Should  an  abated  voice  be  aspirated  on  the  tremulous  move- 
ment of  a  second  or  wider  interval,  it  may  convey  the  sentiment 
of  fear.  When  this  abatement  is  aspirated  on  a  simple  rise,  or 
a  wave  of  the  semitone,  it  is,  as  it  were,  an  approximation  to 
the  sigh ;  and  thus  adds  intensity  to  the  plaintiveness  or  distress 
of  the  semitone  on  a  pure  vocality.  When  a  tremulous  intona- 
tion is  superadded  to  the  aspirated  semitone,  the  voice  exerts 
its  ultimate  means,  for  marking  the  deepest  sadness,  without 
the  assistance  of  crying  and  tears. 

Aspiration,  when  combined  with  different  forms  of  stress,  and 
with  guttural  vibration,  to  be  described  presently,  especially  ex- 
presses contempt,  and  the  like  sentiments :  hence  the  ability  to 
embue  nearly  every  interval  of  intonation  with  that  expression. 
Even  the  simple  rising  and  falling  movements,  indicating 
inquiry,  surprise,  and  emphatic  affirmation,  may,  by  this  means, 
be  made  contemptuous :  but  the  sentiment  is  more  strongly 
marked  when  aspiration  is  applied  to  the  wave ;  the  bearing  of 
scorn  being  most  conspicuous  on  its  unequal  form. 


i 


SECTION  XLIII. 

Of  the  Emphatic  Vocule. 

In  that  section  where  the  elements  are  enumerated,  we  learned, 
that  when  the  articulative  occlusion,  of  an  abrupt  element  is 
removed,  there  is  a  slight  momentary  issue  of  voice  which 
completes  the  formation  of  its  sound.  This  was  called  the 
Vocule.      It  is  a  diminutive  form  of  Abruptness.      Like  all 


THE  EMPHATIC  VOCULE.  345 

other  voices,  it  is  susceptible  of  force.  Its  higher  degrees  of 
stress  constitute  the  function  named  at  the  head  of  this  section. 
The  emphatic  vocule  denotes  great  energy  of  sentiment ;  and 
naturally  follows  a  word,  terminated  by  one  of  the  abrupt  ele- 
ments. 

The  vocules  of  5,  d,  and  g,  are  vocal.  Those  of  Jc,  p,  and  t, 
are  aspirated ;  but  under  a  forcible  emphasis,  are  sometimes 
changed  to  vocality.  Only  the  most  vehement  feeling  will 
justify  the  use  of  this  redundant  explosion,  at  the  end  of  an 
emphatic  word ;  and  cautious  management  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent its  forcible  utterance  from  passing  into  rant  or  aifectation. 

When  an  abrupt  element  precedes  a  tonic,  the  vocule  is  lost 
in  the  sound  of  the  tonic,  which  in  this  case  issues,  as  it  were, 
directly  from  the  abrupt  element.  Thus  in  the  word  light,  the 
vocule  is  distinctly  heard  at  its  termination :  but  if  t  imme- 
diately precedes  the  tonic  i  as  in  tile,  the  vocule  is  lost,  and  t 
seems  to  be  only  an  abrupt  commencement  of  the  sound  of  {. 
This  is  the  natural  and  proper  coalescence,  except  the  abrupt 
element  terminates  a  word.  For  in  this  case  a  junction  of  the 
vocule  with  the  tonic  of  a  following  word,  may  confuse  pronun- 
ciation by  destroying  that  clear  limit  which  should  give  a 
separated  individuality  to  every  word  of  a  sentence.  This  fault 
is  sometimes  even  designedly  assumed,  in  order  to  remedy  a 
want  of  physical  energy  in  pronunciation.  Persons  who  design 
to  give  the  utmost  sharpness  to  their  accents,  and  who  cannot 
suddenly  explode  the  voice  on  a  tonic,  avail  themselves  of  the 
facility  of  bursting-out  from  the  final  abrupt  element  of  a  word 
into  a  succeeding  tonic.  Thus  if  the  phrase  bad  angels,  should 
require  force,  either  for  emphasis  or  for  a  distant  auditory,  it 
would,  with  a  view  to  this  explosion,  be  pronounced  bad  dangels. 
But  as  the  arrangement  of  elements  is  a  casual  thing,  it  must 
happen  that  the  same  word  will  occur  in  discourse,  both  with 
and  without  a  preceding  abrupt  element :  and  besides,  the  com- 
mon exertion  of  force  does  not  require  the  coalescence.  These 
circumstances  will  prevent  the  effect  of  the  junction  becoming 
familiar  to  the  ear,  and  thus  passing  for  a  proper  and  constant 
character  of  the  word.  A  forcible  pronunciation  according  to 
23 


346  THE  GUTTURAL  VIBRATION. 

this  method,  will  therefore  in  some  cases  create  mistakes,  with 
regard  to  the  sound  of  words ;  and  lead  in  most  instances,  to 
that  momentary  hesitation  on  the  part  of  an  audience,  which  is 
incompatible  with  a  ready  and  exact  perception  of  oral  discourse. 
Let  the  phrase,  music  siveet  art,  be  pronounced  in  this  manner, 
and  the  combination  will  present  an  image  both  ludicrous  and 
contradictory. 

If  what  has  been  said,  on  the  means  for  effecting  distinct 
articulation,  by  a  full  and  clearly  formed  radical  stress,  is 
strictly  applied,  the  designed  purpose  of  this  junction  of  tonic 
with  abrupt  elements  may  be  accomplished  without  interfering 
with  the  perception  of  a  clear  outline  in  the  boundary  of  words. 
Since  this  demarcation  is  necessary  for  effecting  distinct  and 
dignified  utterance,  in  the  thoughtful  purpose  of  an  exalted 
elocution. 

In  the  rapid  energy  of  colloquial  speech,  and  in  the  passion- 
ate haste  of  emphatic  discourse,  this  coalescence  of  the  elements 
is  more  liable  to  occur :  nor  in  these  instances  can  it  always  be 
avoided. 


SECTION  XLIV. 

Of  the  Guttural  Vibration. 

In  speaking  of  the  mechanism  of  the  voice,  it  was  shown  that 
the  retraction  of  the  root  of  the  tongue,  together  with  a  closure 
of  the  pharynx,  produces  what  seems  to  be  a  contact  of  the 
sides  of  the  vocal  canal  above  the  glottis,  and  thus  gives  rise  to 
a  harsh  vibration,  from  the  gush  of  air  through  the  straitened 
passage.  This  peculiar  sound  may  be  made  on  the  tonic  and 
subtonic  elements ;  nor  is  their  articulation  much  affected,  by 


I 


OF  ACCENT.  347 

union  with  this  Grating  noise.  I  have  called  this  function  the 
Guttural  Vibration,  on  acccount  of  its  apparent  formal  cause. 

This  guttural  function  is  practicable  on  all  the  intervals 
of  the  scale :  and  it  adds  to  their  respective  characteristics, 
its  own  peculiar  expression.  This  expression  consists  in  the 
strongest  degree  of  contempt,  disgust,  aversion,  or  execration; 
and  these  sentiments  are  most  strongly  marked  on  the  intona- 
tions of  the  wave. 

When  the  guttural  vibration  is  given  with  an  exploded  radical 
stress,  it  makes  the  speaker  himself  feel,  in  its  disruption  from 
his  organs,  that  the  effect  must  spread  widely  around  him ;  and 
while  it  assaults  the  air  with  its  percussion,  that  it  must,  with 
the  fullest  power  of  expression,  break  through  the  ear,  into  the 
understanding  and  heart  of  an  audience. 


Having  thus  described  the  peculiar  forms  and  degrees  of 
Pitch,  Force,  and  Abruptness,  and  having  marked  out  some  of 
the  occasions  for  their  application  in  speech,  we  are  now  pre- 
pared to  consider  their  special  purposes,  comprehended  under 
the  terms  Accent  and  Emphasis.  This  detail  will  form  the 
subjects  of  the  two  following  sections. 


SECTION  XLY. 

Of  Accent. 

Accent  is  defined  in  philology,  to  be  —  the  distinguishing  of 
one  syllable  of  a  word  from  others,  by  the  application  of  a 
greater  force  of  voice  upon  it.  This  is  a  true,  but  limited 
account  of  accent ;  for  it  will  appear  on  inquiry,  that  the  accen- 
tual characteristic  consists  in  a  syllable  being  brought  under  the 


348  OF  ACCENT. 

special  notice  of  the  ear.  This  may  be  done  by  force ;  but  it  will 
be  shown  presently,  that  it  may  be  likewise  eflfected  through 
other  audible  means. 

No  word  when  uttered  singly,  except  as  an  ellipsis,  conveys  any 
intelligible  relationship  or  meaning.  Accent,  as  we  use  the 
term,  is  an  attribute  only  of  individual  words,  and  cannot 
therefore  embrace  what  is  properly  called  expression.  "When 
the  attractive  character  of  a  syllable,  whether  through  force  or 
other  means,  carries  with  it  a  remarkable  meaning,  or  sentiment, 
it  constitutes  what  is  called  Emphasis. 

If  we  have  thus,  accurately  described  the  difference  between 
accent  and  emphasis,  Accent  may  be  defined  in  general  terms, 
to  be  the  fixed  and  inexpressive  distinction  between  the  syllables 
of  a  word.  This  simple  audible  prominence  may  be  effected  by 
the  radical  stress,  the  loud  concrete,  and  a  longer  quantity  on 
the  noted  syllable. 

And  First.  The  radical  stress  constitutes  the  accent  on  im- 
mutable syllables.  The  word  iterated  has  four  short  syllables, 
with  the  accent  on  the  first.  But  the  brevity  of  this  syllable 
not  admitting  the  distinction  of  a  prolonged  quantity,  or  even 
of  the  loud  concrete,  the  accent  must  be  made  by  a  sudden 
burst  of  the  Radical,  into  a  momentary  stress.  The  accent  may 
be  readily  transferred  to  each  of  the  other  syllables,  by  giving 
the  necessary  degree  of  radical  abruptness  respectively  to  them. 

Second.  Syllables  of  sufficient  length  to  render  the  radical 
and  vanishing  movement  cognizable,  admit  of  accentual  distinc- 
tion by  the  Loud  concrete.  In  the  word  Padington,  the  three 
syllables  axe  of  moderate  length,  and  about  equal.  As  the  first 
has  quantity  sufficient  to  prevent  the  necessity  of  adopting  the 
explosive  radical  stress,  its  high  accentual  relief  can  be  brought 
out,  and  readily  transferred  to  each  of  the  other  syllables,  by 
the  loud  concrete  alone.  Syllables  adapted  to  the  loud  concrete 
may  receive  at  the  same  time,  an  addition  of  the  radical  stress. 
But  the  former  being  adequate  to  the  inexpressive  purpose  of 
accent,  a  radical  abruptness  is  unnecessary. 

It  has  been  shown,  that  the  Thorough  stress  may  sometimes 
ixe  used  on  short  syllables.     It  might  therefore,  have  been  here 


OF  ACCENT.  349 

assigned,  as  one  of  the  means  for  accentual  distinction :  but  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  the  radical  stress,  and  the  loud 
concrete  on  these  short  quantities ;  and  therefore  does  not 
deserve  a  separate  consideration. 

Third.  When  the  time  or  quantity  of  one  syllable  exceeds  the 
rest,  that  syllable  readily  receives  the  accent,  and  even  when 
unassisted  by  loudness  or  abruptness,  sometimes  necessarily 
assumes  it.  The  word  victory,  pronounced  with  the  usual 
degree  of  radical  stress  on  the  first  syllable,  and  with  the 
second  subsequently  prolonged,  as  if  written  v\c-toe-vj,  has  the 
distinguishing  impression  of  the  accent,  which  in  this  case  may 
be  called  the  Temporal  accent,  postponed  to  that  second  sylla- 
ble ;  even  though  it  should  be  uttered  with  comparative  feebleness, 
and  w^th  all  possible  omission  of  abruptness.  Words  which  con- 
sist of  syllables  of  equal  time,  such  as  needful,  ^empire,  farewell 
sincere,  and  amen,  easily  undergo  a  change  of  accent,  by  a 
slight  addition  to  the  length  of  either  syllable.  When  the  word 
heaven  is  pronounced  as  if  written  heav-n,  the  longer  quantity 
of  the  first  syllable -assumes  the  accent ;  but  when  divided  into 
two  equal  syllables  as  in  Tieav-ven,  the  place  of  the  accent  is 
doubtful ;  or  the  word  may  be  said  to  have  two  equal  accents. 

These  are  the  three  causes  of  accentual  distinction :  accent 
being  the  prominent  and  fixed  feature  that  identifies  a  word, 
without  enlivening  its  utterance  by  any  peculiar  sense  or  expres- 
sion. Now  as  these  means  are  sufficient  to  give  an  importance 
to  syllables,  without  conveying  at  the  same  time  an  especial 
meaning,  which  is  the  design  of  emphasis,  we  may  see  the  line 
of  separation  between  these  functions.  It  is  true,  emphasis, 
cannot  exist  without  accent :  for  the  emphatic  is  always  the 
accented  syllable :  and  the  expressive  power  of  pitch,  time,  and 
stress  must  give  the  emphatic  syllable  that  attractive  influence 
which  constitutes  the  essential  agency  of  accent. 

I  have  pointed  out  only  the  radical  stress,  the  thorough  on 
short  quantities,  and  the  loud  concrete,  as  the  causes  of  accent, 
derived  from  force ;  since  the  median,  the  vanishing,  and  the 
compound,  are  more  commonly  used  as  the  means  of  expression : 
and  in  the  plain  pronunciation  of  a  single  word,  surely  no  one 


350  OF  ACCENT. 

docs  employ  these  last  named  forms  of  stress.  Yet  notwithstand- 
ing the  various  accents  have  been  represented  as  independent  of 
pitch,  still  they  do  not  exclude  the  use  of  some  of  its  inexpres- 
sive forms.  Thus  the  radical  stress  and  the  loud  concrete  do 
move  rapidly  through  a  tone;  and  the  temporal  accent,  when 
not  unduly  prolonged,  may  take  the  form  of  the  direct  and 
inverted  wave  of  the  same  interval.  For  this  gives  dignity  to 
utterance  by  means  of  its  deliberate  movement ;  yet  has  no 
peculiar  expression  incompatible  with  the  simple  purpose  of 
accent. 

Since  the  use  of  the  three  kinds  of  accent,  is  in  a  considerable 
degree  governed  by  the  time  of  syllables,  it  is  desirable  to  know 
the  circumstances  which  render  them  severally  applicable ;  make 
them  easily  changeable ;  and  give  them  a  predominant  and  con- 
trolling influence. 

Syllables,  with  regard  to  their  time,  were  arranged  under 
three  classes,  The  Immutable,  Mutable,  and  Indefinite.  Radi- 
cal stress  is  the  means  for  distinguishing  immutable  syllables. 
The  loud  concrete  may  be  given  to  the  mutable  :  since  thoy  have 
suflScient  length  for  the  display  of  force,  without  the  necessity 
of  an  abrupt  explosion.  Indefinite  syllables,  admit  of  the 
attractive  distinction  of  the  temporal  accent :  and  yet  they  are 
sometimes  pronounced  equally  short  with  the  immutable.  Thus 
lo  in  loquacity,  and  lo,  used  as  an  emphatic  interjection,  exem- 
plify the  extremes  of  duration.  Hence  it  follows,  that  the 
radical  stress  may  sometimes  be  used  on  an  indefinite  syllable, 
in  its  shortest  time :  as  it  is  in  the  accent  of  the  words  illative, 
and  orderly. 

In  words,  consisting  of  a  long  and  a  short  syllable,  the 
accents  of  stress  and  quantity  readily  give  way  to  each  other. 
Thus  in  the  noun  perfume,  the  length  of  the  last  syllable  yields 
to  the  stress  on  the  first.  But  in  the  verb  perfCime,  the  stress 
as  easily  gives  way  to  the  temporal  accent  on  fume. 

Of  all  the  means  by  which  one  accented  syllable  of  a  word 
is  embossed  upon  the  ear,  if  I  may  so  speak,  in  higher  relief 
than  others,  the  most  common  is  that  of  the  temporal  impres- 
sion.    In  the  English  language  the  accented  syllable  is  generally 


OF  ACCENT.  351 

the  longest :  and  the  excess  of  length  alone,  without  obA'ious 
radical  abruptness,  or  an  increase  of  force  on  the  whole  con- 
crete, above  the  neighboring  syllables,  is  sufficient  to  answer 
the  purposes  of  accentual  distinction.  The  majority  of  writers, 
without  sufficient  examination,  have  resolved  all  accents  into 
excess  of  force.        • 

Inasmuch  as  the  radical  is  the  principal  form  of  stress  for 
short  syllables ;  and  as  the  loud  concrete  may  be  applied  on  all 
but  immutable  ones,  it  may  be  inquired,  whether  stress,  or  quan- 
tity has  the  greater  influence  in  pronunciation,  by  its  controlling 
or  excluding  power.  In  most  words,  this  predominant  influence 
is  readily  changeable  ;  as  in  the  words  commemoration,  j^erZ/ew, 
Oordova,  Ontario  ;  the  accent,  of  whatever  kind,  being  in  these 
instances  as  easily  practicable  on  one  syllable  as  on  another. 
But  in  words  having  the  arrangement  of  beguile,  indeed,  delay, 
and  revenge,  the  temporal  accent  cannot  be  deprived  of  its 
supremacy,  by  a  radical  stress  on  the  first  syllable,  except 
through  an  effort  in  exploding  the  first,  and  abbreviating  the 
last.  For  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  reduce  the  quantity  of 
one  syllable,  that  the  radical  stress  may  take  the  lead  on 
another.  The  accent  of  the  word  Emanuel,  lies  in  the  quan- 
tity of  the  second  syllable.  Scarcely  any  degree  of  abruptness 
can  transfer  the  accent  to  e,  while  man  retains  its  length. 
When  this  is  shortened,  the  first  syllable  e,  may,  through  a 
strong  radical  stress,  be  made  the  leading  accent ;  but  the  word 
will  scarcely  be  recognized  in  the  change. 

In  regarding  the  subject  of  accent,  it  ought  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  difference  in  kind,  of  the  elementary  sounds,  may 
in  some  cases,  be  mistaken  for  a  difference  in  force ;  since  to 
many  an  ear,  ee-\  and  a-le  might  seem  to  be  surpassed  by  ou-v 
and  a-we. 

There  are  diff"erent  degrees  of  susceptibility  among  the  ele- 
ments, in  receiving  the  accent.  The  tonics  more  easily  and 
conspicuously  take  on  each  of  its  three  forms.  The  abrupt  ele- 
ments are  heard  in  the  vanishing  stress,  and  assist  the  explosive 
effbrt  on  the  tonics  ;  but  are  utterly  incapable  of  the  loud  concrete, 
and  the  temporal  accent.     The  subtonics  have  little  or  no  power, 


352  OF  ACCENT. 

under  the  radical  stress ;  but  fulfill  all  the  purposes  of  quantity : 
while  the  atonies,  though  heard  in  the  emphatic  vocule,  never, 
in  proper  and  unaffected  speech,  receive  accentual  distinction. 

The  impressive  agency  of  accent  on  the  ear,  is  fixed  in  the 
pronunciation  of  the  English  language,  on  one  or  two  syllables 
of  all  Avords,  with  more  than  one.  It  is  an  abundant  source  of 
variety  in  speech ;  forms  the  measure  of  our  versification ;  and 
when  skillfully  disposed,  by  the  adjustment  of  a  delicate  ear, 
produces,  with  the  assistance  of  quantity  and  pause,  the  varied 
rythmic  measure  of  prose. 

Some  grammarians  and  rhetoricians,  with  whom  the  intelligent 
Mr.  Sheridan  is  to  be  ranked,  have  set  forth  a  rule,  that  when 
the  accent  falls  on  a  consonant,  the  syllable  is  short :  and  long 
when  on  a  vowel.  At  school,  I  could  not  understand  this  great 
prosodial  principle  :  now,  I  perceive  it  has  no  foundation.  For 
if  accent  is  variously  produced  by  radical  stress,  the  loud  con- 
crete, and  by  quantity,  a  distinction  of  literal  place  cannot 
make  the  supposed  difference.  The  abrupt  stress  will  always  be 
made  on  a  tonic,  (or  vowel,)  notwithstanding  the  syllable  may  be 
opened  on  a  preceding  subtonic  or  abrupt  element.  The  loud 
concrete  must  be  applied  on  all  the  elements  without  distinction: 
while  an  accentual  impression  by  quantity  must  consist  of  the 
united  time  of  tonics  and  subtonics,  when  the  syllable  is  con- 
structed with  these  different  elements.  But  all  this  is  only  a 
denial  of  the  truth  of  the  rule,  on  the  ground  of  our  own  history 
of  accent.  Let  us  hear  how  the  rule  agrees  with  the  fact 
of  pronunciation.  In  the  word  ac-tion,  the  abrupt  stress  is  on 
the  vowel  (tonic)  a, —  for  c,  in  this  case,  having  no  body  of  sound, 
is  but  the  occluded  termination  of  a, —  yet  the  syllable  is  short : 
and  in  re-venge,  the  accent  or  the  greatest  impression  on  the 
ear,  is  from  the  quantity  of  the  subtonics  (consonants)  n,  and  g/i, 
and  yet  the  syllable  is  long.  Language  is  full  of  like  examples; 
and  from  the  illustration  they  furnish,  we  may  learn  that  the 
time  of  syllables  bears  no  certain  relation  to. stress,  nor  to  other 
means  of  accentual  agency.  The  prevalent  error  on  this  subject 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  general  cause  of  all  errors,  a  want  of 
observation  at  first,  and  the  assumption  of  notions  to  prevent 
observation  ever  after. 


OF  EMPHASIS.  353 

Mr.  Walker  has  given  a  theory  of  accent ;  making  it  depend- 
ent on  the  rising  and  falling  inflection,  as  indefinitely  described 
by  him.  If  the  preceding  history  of  intonation  is  true,  and  if 
it  has  been  clearly  comprehended,  the  reader  must  at  once  con- 
clude that  accent  can  have  no  fixed  relationship  to  a  rise  of  the 
voice,  or  to  its  fall :  for  it  is  made  with  every  essential  charac- 
teristic, under  either  of  these  opposite  movements ;  their 
junction  into  the  wave ;  and  under  all  the  changeable  phrases 
of  melody. 

Much  has  been  said  by  authors  on  the  subject  of  the  conven- 
tional application  of  accent.  But  with  the  sole  means  of  the 
Tongue  and  the  Ear,  yet  with  scholastic  authority  all  around 
me,  I  began  this  history  of  the  voice,  with  a  resolution  to  speak 
from  Nature ;  and  not  after  men,  too  blind  or  too  proud  to  con- 
sult. Her  ever-open,  and  Revealing  Book  of  Speech. 


SECTION  XLVI. 
Of  Emphasis. 

Emphasis,  is  defined  to  be  a  stress  of  voice  on  one  or  more 
words  of  a  sentence,  distinguishing  them  by  intensity,  or  pecu- 
liarity of  meaning.  Most  writers,  without  seeming  to  consider 
the  subject  of  much  importance,  indefinitely  attribute  to  em- 
phasis, a  characteristic  'tone;*  and  Mr.  Walker  imagined  he 
specified  this  idea,  throughout  all  its  conditions,  in  his  general, 
and  vague  account  of  the  upward  and  downward  inflection. 

But  authority  aside ;  let  us  try  to  do  something  to  the  purpose 
by  observing  and  recording. 

It  was  stated,  that  Accent  is  the  fixed  but  inexpressive  distinc- 
tion of  syllables,  by  quantity  and  stress  :  alike  both  in  place  and 


354  THE  EMPHASIS  OF  QUALITY. 

nature,  whether  the  words  are  pronounced  singly  from  the 
columns  of  a  vocabulary,  or  connectedly  in  the  series  of  discourse. 

Emphasis  is  the  expressive,  but  occasional  distinction  of  a 
syllable,  and  thereby  the  whole  word,  or  of  several  successive 
words,  by  one  or  more  of  the  various  forms  and  degrees  of  Time, 
Quality,  Force,  Abruptness,  and  Pitch. 

This  notable  function  belongs  essentially  to  the  current  of 
discourse ;  but  it  may  be  employed  on  solitary  interjections,  and 
on  single  words,  when  they  form  elliptical  sentences.  It  will 
appear  hereafter,  that  emphasis  is  no  more  than  a  generic  term, 
including  specifications  of  the  use  of  every  mode  of  the  voice, 
for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  sentiment  and  thought. 

The  stated  means  of  quantity  and  stress  which  constitute 
accent,  being  included  among  the  enumerated  causes  of  emphatic 
distinction,  it  might  be  inferred,  that  in  these  particulars,  accent 
and  emphasis  cannot  differ  from  each  other.  Quantity,  radical 
stress,  and  the  loud  concrete,  are  indeed  by  their  nature,  the 
same  in  both  cases ;  but  their  purpose  and  power  in  the  latter, 
invest  them  with  the  attractive  influence  of  expression. 

For  a  detailed  account  of  the  particular  occasions  for  apply- 
ing emphasis,  the  reader  is  referred  to  libraries.  They  contain 
rhetorical  works,  setting  forth  this  part  of  the  subject,  with 
comprehensiveness,  perspicuity  and  taste.  It  is  our  aim,  to 
point  out  and  to  measure  the  vocal  material  of  emphasis. 

Emphasis  produces  its  effect  upon  the  ear,  by  means  of  the 
quality,  force,  time,  and  abruptness  of  sounds  and  the  varied 
intervals  of  intonation.  The  particular  enumeration  of  these 
means  will  be  given  under  the  following  heads. 


Of  the  EmpTiasis  of  Quality. 

The  different  forms  of  the  mode  of  Quality,  were  enumerated 
in  the  ninth  section.  They  are  variously  expressive,  and  some 
of  them  strongly  affect  the  ear.  Besides  their  use  in  the  gene- 
ral current  of  speech,   they  may  be    occasionally  applied  as 


I 


THE  EMPHASIS  OF  FORCE.  355 

emphasis  on  single  words.  I  do  not  say,  vfo  are  to  include  under 
this  head,  cases  in  which  sound  is  said  to  be  '  an  echo  to  the 
sense.'  The  reader  may,  on  this  point,  consult  Mr.  Sheridan, 
and  other  writers ;  and  judge  for  himself,  how  far  any  individual 
sound  of  the  alphabetic  elements,  may  be  considered  as  Quality, 
and  applied  as  emphasis.  The  following  line  from  Milton's 
Lycidas,  is  said  to  be  an  example  of  this  kind  of  expression. 

Their  lean  and  flashy  songs 
Grate  on  their  scrannel  pipes  of  wretched  straw. 

If  the  r,  here  repeated,  be  roughened  by  vibration  of  the 
tongue,  it  may  be  thought  to  represent  vocally  the  harshness  of 
the  Shepherd's  pipe :  but  to  me  the  expression,  if  expression, 
would  be  lost  in  its  affectation. 

The  guttural  vibration  as  a  quality,  is  expressive  of  scorn 
and  execration.  The  falsetto  may  be  emphatic,  in  the  scream 
of  terror. 


Of  the  JEmpJiasis  of  Force. 

Under  the  Time-honored,  we  cannot  call  it  the  Natural  — 
System  of  Elocution,  Force  or  Stress  seems  to  have  been  re- 
garded,—  if  we  except  the  vague  pretensions  of  ancient  accent, 
and  of  modern  inflection, —  as  the  principal,  if  not  only  means 
of  emphatic  distinction.  Our  system,  gives  it  an  influential  but 
not  an  overbearing  agency  among  the  Modes  of  the  voice ;  In 
the  first  section  I  classed  Abruptness,  as  a  peculiar  function, 
and  although  apparently  a  form  of  Force,  gave  it  a  place  as  a 
separate  Mode.  The  scope  however,  of  its  character  and  occa- 
sion is  limited;  for  it  has  no  varied  forms,  and  but  slight 
difference  in  degree.  It  might  indeed  be  arranged  under  the . 
term  Abrupt-radical  stress ;  since  it  is  at  the  opening  alone 
of  the  concrete,  that  its  effect  as  a  peculiar  function,  and 
an  independent  Mode  of  speech  is  recognized.  But  as  the 
Radical  stress  has  a  congenial  relationship  to  the  use  of  force 
on  other  parts  of  the  concrete,  I  have  thought,  with  this  pre- 


356  THE  RADICAL  EMPHASIS. 

fatory  remark,  the  term  abrupt  stress,  even  with  its  claims 
to  separate  arrangement,  might  here  be  merged  in  the  subject 
of  Radical  Emphasis,  and  thus  included  under  its  name. 


Of  the  Radical  Emphasis. 

"When  an  immutable  syllable  bears  the  accent  of  a  word, 
remarkable  by  sense,  sentiment,  or  antithesis,  the  audible  dis- 
tinction can  be  made  only  in  three  "ways :  by  quality  of  voice ; 
a  wide  radical  change  in  the  phrase  of  melody :  and  an  abrupt 
enforcement  of  the  radical  stress.  The  two  former  will  be 
noticed  in  their  proper  places.     The  last  is  here  illustrated. 

And  with  perpetual  inroads  to  alarm,  I 

Though  inacessible,  his  fatal  throne ; 
Which,  if  not  rectory,  is  yet  revenge. 

If  the  strongly  contrasted  meaning  of  the  word  victory,  is 
not  represented  by  guttural  vibration ;  by  aspiration,  or  some 
other  available  quality ;  or  by  a  change  of  radical  pitch  upward 
or  downward  through  the  skip  of  a  third,  fifth  or  octave,  the 
syllable  vie  must  be  raised  into  importance  by  means  of  the 
abrupt  radical  stress :  at  least  no  other  form  can  be  effective 
while  the  syllabic  is  limited  to  its  natural  quantity. 

It  is  true,  even  an  immutable  syllable,  may  be  carried  rapidly 
through  any  interval  of  the  scale ;  still  this  rapid  movement 
when  not  joined  with  the  radical  change,  is  of  no  emphatic  im- 
portance. 

Although  the  radical  distinction  is  here  applied  to  immutable 
syllables,  it  is  plain  from  its  nature,  that  it  may  be  also  laid 
on  those  of  indefinite  time.  But  since  these  admit  of  more 
agreeable  forms,  derived  from  quantity  and  intonation,  they  less 
frequently  require  the  strong  explosion  of  the  radical. 

This  emphasis  is  the  sign  of  anger,  positive  affirmation,  com- 
mand, and  of  energetic  sentiments  of  all  kinds.  It  is  also  the 
common  means  of  enforcement,  whatever  is  the  time  of  the 
syllable,  when  the  spirit  of  discourse  directs  a  rapid  utterance. 


THE  MEDIAN  EMPHASIS.  357 


Of  the  3Iedian  Emphasis. 

The  prominent  display  of  the  sense  of  a  word,  by  a  gradual 
increase  and  subsequent  diminution  of  voice,  can  be  effected 
only  on  syllables  of  indefinite  time.  It  has  an  importance 
equal  to  that  of  the  radical  stress,  under  a  form  of  greater 
smoothness,  dignity  and  grace.  In  the  following  sentence,  the 
word  sole  contains  a  sentiment  of  warm  and  serious  admiration, 
finely  expressed  by  means  of  this  emphasis. 

Wonder  not  sov'reign  Mistress,  if  perhaps 
Tliou  canst,  who  art  sole  ■wonder ! 

Though  the  median  stress  might  be  executed  on  the  simple 
rise  and  fall  of  intervals,  Avhen  considerably  protracted,  yet  it  is 
most  frequently  made  on  the  wave.  In  the  present  case  the 
emphatic  intonation  of  the  word  sole  is  through  the  equal  wave 
of  the  second  or  third ;  the  swell  being  at  the  junction  of  its 
two  constituents. 

The  reader  must  bear  in  mind,  that  in  assigning  the  form  of 
stress  in  this,  and  the  preceding  examples,  I  have  been  governed 
by  the  principles  of  speech,  laid  down  in  this  volume ;  and  that 
I  shall  continue  to  apply  them,  in  illustrating  the  other  forms  of 
emphasis,  included  under  this  section  :  for  if  these  examples  be 
read  in  any  of  those  various  ways,  resulting  from  instinctive 
attempts  in  elocution,  I  shall  in  all  probability  be  misunderstood. 
On  this  ground,  I  would  allot  to  the  lines  above  quoted,  the 
plain  but  deeply  respectful  character,  effected  by  prolonged 
({uantity,  in  the  diatonic  melody ;  giving  to  the  emphatic  sylla- 
lable  the  importance  of  greater  time  either  in  the  wave  of  the 
second,  or  third,  or  even  fifth ;  and  smoothly  enhancing  it  by 
the  swell  of  the  median  stress.  It  is  not  within  our  present 
purpose,  but  it  might  be  added,  that  thou  should  have  the  Avave 
of  the  second  or  third  to  connect  it  both  by  time  and  intona- 
tion, under  the  emphatic  tie,  with  sole ;  and  that  canst  should 
be  set  at  a  ditone  above  tlwu^  to  assist  the  emphatic  tie,  in 
carrying  on  the  voice,  and  with  it  the  sense  of  the  line. 


358  THE  VANISHING  EMPHASIS. 


Of  the  Vanishing  Emphasis. 

This  form  of  stress  is  characterized  by  a  degree  of  force, 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  radical  emphasis.  Why  then  are  they 
distinguished  from  each  other  by  name  ?  The  radical  is  appro- 
priate to  immutable  syllables  ;  the  vanishing  cannot  be  recognized 
on  them ;  for  some  extent  of  quantity  is  required  for  its  display : 
and  though  the  sentiment  of  hasty  energy,  that  prompts  it, 
generally  assigns  it  to  a  simple  concrete,  with  just  sufficient 
time  for  its  application,  still  it  is  sometimes  effectively  made  on 
the  utmost  extension  of  the  single  movement,  and  the  wave. 

In  the  following  examples,  this  inversion  of  the  natural  or 
simple  form  of  the  concrete,  may  be  employed  for  the  expres- 
sion of  angry  impatience  in  the  one  case,  and  of  threatening 
vengeance  in  the  other. 

Oh  ye  Gods .'  ye  Gods  I  must  I  endure  all  this  ? 

Oh!  that  I  had  him, 
With  six  Aufidiuses,  or  more,  his  tribe, 
To  use  my  lawful  sword. 

The  words  here  marked  in  italics,  when  pronounced  with  the 
vanishing  stress,  have  that  Irish  provincialism,  which  charac- 
terizes in  a  degree,  this  species  of  force ;  the  final  abrupt  element 
in  these  cases,  contributing  to  the  effect,  by  its  occlusion. 

This  form  of  stress  is  often  used  for  an  energetic  question : 
since  in  this  way,  the  extent  of  the  interrogative  interval,  with 
its  emphatic  boundary,  is  more  forcibly  impressed  on  the  car. 

A  cause  of  the  peculiar  expression  of  the  vanishing  emphasis, 
may  be  this :  From  the  ordinary  habit  of  the  voice  in  the  simple 
concrete,  it  is  difficult  to  produce  a  final  fulness  and  force,  with- 
out giving  rapidity  of  time  to  its  execution :  and  this  adapts  it 
to  the  active  sentiment,  represented  by  the  vanishing  stress. 


THE  COMPOUND  EMPHASIS  359 


Of  the  Comfound  Emphasis. 

A  DEGREE  of  emphatic  distinction  by  stress,  stronger  than 
that  of  the  preceding  forms,  may  be  applied  to  syllables  of 
indefinite  time ;  for  these,  under  the  direction  of  vehement 
feeling,  may  receive  their  force  from  both  the  radical  and  vanish- 
ing stress  :  as  in  the  following  urgent  call. 

Arm  warriors  arm  for  fight,  the  foe  at  hand, 
Whom  fled  we  thought,  will  save  us  long  pursuit 
This  day. 

The  imperative  words  here  marked  in  italics,  require  the  use 
of  this  double  form  of  stress,  either  on  a  wide  downward  interval, 
or  an  unequal-direct  wave,  with  a  wide  downward  constituent. 
It  is  however  more  particularly  appropriate  to  the  forcible 
expression  of  interrogative  sentiments.  The  reason  of  this  is 
given  in  the  thirty-eighth  section ;  and  I  here  cite  an  example, 
from  the  scene  of  Hamlet's  violence  towards  Lsertes,  at  the 
grave  of  Ophelia. 

Dost  thou  come  here  to  whine  ? 

To  outface  me  by  leaping  in  her  grave? 

The  intense  spirit  of  these  questions  call  for  the  Thorough 
interrogative  intonation ;  and  the  emphatic  importance  of  the 
word  whine,  requires  the  rising  octave  with  the  compound  stress 
upon  it.  Thus  the  radical  abruptness  on  i,  sets  forth  the 
threatening  rage  of  the  prince  ;  while  the  vanishing  stress  on  n, 
conspicuously  denotes  the  inquiry,  by  marking  the  extent  of  the 
interrogative  interval. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  speak  of  the  aspiration,  to  be  joined 
with  the  compound  stress,  for  the  expression  of  the  contempt  or 
scorn,  the  question  may  contain. 

On  the  whole,  I  confess,  the  discrimination  of  this  species  of 
emphasis,  in  the  current  of  pronunciation,  is  not  so  easy,  as  that 
of  the  preceding.  Still  it  does  exist  in  the  nature  of  the  voice. 
Its  effect  is  peculiar  to  itself:  and  by  deliberate  analysis  it  is 
clearly  resolvable  into  the  above  named  constituents. 


360  THOROUGH  EMPHASIS  AND  LOUD  CONCRETE. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the   Thorough  Stress,  and 
the  Loud  Concrete. 

In  detailing  the  assignable  forms  and  degrees  of  force,  those 
of  the  Thorough  stress,  and  the  Loud  concrete,  were  described 
as  different  from  the  rest,  and  from  each  other. 

But  I  am  not  disposed  to  insist  upon  the  importance  of  these 
distinctions,  for  the  practical  purposes  of  elocution.  They  exist 
however,  as  forms  of  stress ;  and  as  emphasis,  perhaps  exert 
their  influence  upon  the  feeling,  and  understanding.  Yet  they 
are  not,  either  in  nature  or  degree,  when  employed  on  short 
quantities,  so  distinguishable  from  the  radical,  and  the  compound 
stress,  and  from  each  other,  as  to  require  special  exemplification. 
Peculiarity  of  character  in  these  forms  of  stress,  is  relative  to 
the  time  of  syllables :  for  when  this  is  not  so  short  as  to  require 
an  emphasis  of  the  radical  stress,  nor  of  sufficient  length  to 
admit  of  a  protracted  application  of  force,  the  required  distinc- 
tion may  be  effected  by  the  loud  concrete,  or  the  thorough  stress, 
as  in  the  marked  syllables  of  the  following  lines  ;  where  the  first 
may  receive  the  former,  and  the  second,  the  latter  form  of  stress. 

This  knows  my  Punisher :  therefore  as  far 
From  ffrandng  he,  as  I  from  beffgmg  peace. 

On  this  subject,  let  it  be  kept  in  mind,  that  although  the 
thorough  stress  may  be  used,  under  the  limitation  of  emphasis, 
on  short,  and  perhaps  occasionally  on  longer  quantities  ;  yet  when 
unusually  prolonged,  and  applied  to  a  current  melody,  it  has  that 
rustic  coarseness,  ascribed  to  it,  in  the  thirty-ninth  section. 


Of  the  Aspirated  Emphasis. 

The  earnestness  and  other  expressive  effects  of  aspiration, 
may  be  spread  over  a  whole  sentence.  The  same  expression  is 
sometimes  restricted  to  a  single  word ;  thus  constituting  the 
aspirated  emphasis.  Many  words  claim  this  emphasis  from  the 
essential  energy  of  their  meaning ;  and  these,  in  some  cases 


THE  EMPHATIC  VOCULE.  3(51 

have  the  literal  symbol  of  aspiration,  as  havoc,  horror,  huzza. 
A  similar  remark  may  be  made  with  regard  to  some  of  the 
interjections.  I  need  not  quote  instances  of  aspirated  utterance 
in  the  exclamations  of  passion,  and  in  the  pure  breathing  of  a 
sigh :  the  pages  of  the  drama  are  full  of  examples. 

In  the  following  dialogue  from  Julius  Coesar,  the  effect  of 
aspiration,  in  marking  an  earnest  sentiment,  is  suflScientlv 
obvious,  on  the  words  ay,  and  fear,  set  in  italics. 

Brutus.    What  means  this  shouting?  I  do  fear  the  people 

Choose  Caesar  for  their  king. 
Cassius.         ^  Ai/,  do  you  fear  it  ? 

Then  must  I  think  you  would  not  have  it  so. 

And  again,  in  the  Tent  scene,  the  earnest  repugnance  of 
Cassius  is  manifested  by  an  aspiration  on  the  word  chastise- 
ment. 

Brutus.     The  name  of  Cassius  honors  this  corruption, 

And  chastisement  does  therefore  hide  his  head. 
Cassius.    Chastisement ! 

When  aspiration  is  combined  with  the  vanishing  stress  on  a 
simple  concrete,  or  on  the  various  forms  of  the  wave,  it  conveys 
an  expression  of  sneer,  or  contempt,  or  scorn. 

Aspiration  may  be  applied  to  syllables  of  every  variety  of 
time ;  to  all  forms  of  force ;  and  all  intervals  of  intonation. 


Of  the  Emphatic  Vocule. 

When  an  emphatic  word  terminates  with  an  abrupt  element, 
and  is  followed  by  a  pause,  that  slight  issue  of  sound,  called  the 
Vocule,  generally  receives  a  continuation  of  force  from  the 
emphatic  word :  and  this,  by  its  explosive  effort,  becomes  the 
sign  of  passionate  excitement. 

There  are  occasions  on  which  tliis  vocule  may  be  used,  with  a 
view  to  press  into  a  syllable  all  the  power  of  emphasis.     But  it 
comes  so  close  to  affectation,  that  I  hesitated  about  its  classifica- 
tion, as  a  fault,  or  as  an  assistant  enforcement  of  speech. 
24 


362  THE  GUTTURAL  EMPHASIS. 

I  will  not  say  absolutely,  it  slioukl  be  heard  in  the  following 
line,  from  the  close  of  the  third  scene,  in  the  third  act  of 
Othello.  But  when  the  word  hate^  is  pronounced  with  the  force 
required  by  the  sentiments  of  the  Moor,  the  emphatic  vocule 
almost  necessarily  bursts  from  the  organic  opening  of  the  atonic 
abrupt  element. 

Yield  up,  0  love,  thy  crown,  and  hearted  throne 
To  tyrannous  hate !  swell,  bosom,  with  thy  frauglit. 


Of  the  Guttural  Umphasis. 

The  sentiments  of  disgust,  aversion,  execration,  and  horror, 
give  their  expression  to  an  emphatic  word,  by  joining  the  guttural 
vibration  to  other  means  of  vocal  distinction.  It  is  heard  on 
the  daily  occasions  for  revolting  interjectives ;  but  is  sometimes 
found  engrafted  on  the  common  current  of  syllabic  utterance. 
It  might  be  properly  used  on  the  word  defestable^  in  the  follow- 
ing lines,  from  that  dreadful  malediction  upon  Athens,  at  the 
opening  of  the  fourth  act  of  Shakspeare's  Timon :  taking  care 
to  accent  the  second  syllable,  which  does  not  bear  a  stress,  in 
the  measure  of  the  line. 

Nothing  I'll  bear  from  thee 
But  nakedness,  thou  detestable  town  I 

When  this  guttural  vibration  is  combined  with  the  highest 
powers  of  stress  and  aspiration,  it  produces  the  most  impulsive 
blast  of  speech. 


Of  the   Temporal  Emphasis. 

When  the  quantity  of  an  emphatic  syllable  is  long,  and 
admits  of  indefinite  extension ;  when  the  word  has  only  an  anti- 
thetic, or  discriminative  meaning,  without  conveying  sentiment 
or  passion ;  or  when  the  distinction  has  the  sole   purpose  of  an 


THE  TEMPORAL  EMPHASIS.  363 

emphatic  tie,  the  impression  may  be  made  by  the  influence  of 
time  alone,  as  on  co,  in  the  follo^ving  address : 

Hfiil  holy  Light,  oifspring  of  Heaven  first-born, 
Or  of  the  Eternal,   coeternal  beam, 
May  I  express  thee  unblamed? 

Or  more  conspicuously,  in  Abdiel's  warning  to   Satan. 

For  soon  expect  to  feel 
His  thunder  on  thy  head,  deyoj/ring  fire. 
Then,  who  created  thee  lamenting  learn, 
When  who  can  w/icreate  thee  thou  shalt  knotc. 

In  this  example,  the  impressive  long  quantity  of  the  accented 
syllable  of  thunder^  and  of  devouring,  is  given  as  an  instance  of 
the  emphatic  tie ;  in  which  the  connection  of  two  subjects  sepa- 
rated by  a  clause,  is  shown  in  its  true  vocal  syntax ;  and  by 
which  any  ludicrous  image,  from  too  ready  an  association 
between  head  and  devouring  fire,  may  be  obviated.  Perhaps 
it  will  be  said, —  these  words,  together  with  the  others  marked 
in  italics  as  emphatic  by  quantity  alone,  might  receive  the 
additional  distinction  of  a  forceful,  or  an  intonated  emphasis. 
But  it  may  be  learned  from  the  speech,  at  large,  that  Abdiel 
is  no  longer  the  '  fervent  angel'  contending  with  the  apostate. 
He  is  now  the  herald  of  the  decrees  of  the  Almighty.  The 
earnest  spirit,  with  the  alternate  hopes  and  fears  of  argument, 
has  given  place  to  grave  admonitions,  and  to  solemn  declara- 
tions of  an  ordained  judgment ;  and  the  unimpassioncd  but 
conspicuous  distinction  by  temporal  emphasis,  appears  well 
accommodated  to  the  utterance  of  the  '  unmoved,  unshaken, 
unseduccd,  unterrified,'  and  prophetic  Seraph. 

The  reader  must  have  observed  the  close  connection  between 
the  various  vocal  constituents :  and  that  with  every  attempt,  it 
is  impossible  to  represent  each  separately,  in  the  necessary 
illustrations.  We  here  speak  of  the  simple  extension  of  quan- 
tity as  the  means  of  emphasis,  when  in  reality  that  quantity  is 
in  part  effective,  through  the  influence  of  some  form  of  intona- 
tion. When  time  is  extended  on  interrogative  syllables ;  on 
those  of  positivencss  or  command ;  or  on  a  feeble  cadence,  the 


364  THE  EMPHASIS  OF  PITCH. 

intonation  is  made  respectively,  through  the  simple  course  of  tlie 
upward  or  downward  third,  fifth,  or  octave.  But  in  the  plain 
temporal  emphasis,  of  the  above  examples,  and  when  employed 
in  the  simple  but  dignified  diatonic  melody,  an  extension  of  the 
indefinite  syllables,  is  always  through  the  direct  or  inverted 
wave  of  tlie  second. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  Pitch. 

It  was  stated  generally,  in  speaking  of  the  pitch  of  the  voice, 
that  the  several  intervals  of  the  scale  are  used  as  the  means  of 
emphasis.  We  should  now  proceed  to  the  illustration  of  this 
subject :  but  as  the  rising  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  are  signs  of 
interrogation,  and  as  they  have  this  signification  even  when 
applied  to  but  one  word  of  a  sentence,  we  may  inquire,  how  the 
interrogative  characteristic  in  discourse,  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  emphatic.  There  must  be  even  to  the  common  ear, 
something  like  an  unwritten  rule,  to  which  reference  is  uncon- 
sciously made ;  for  notwithstanding,  the  frequent  employment 
of  these  signs  in  their  different  meanings,  these  meanings  are 
rarely  confounded.  But  our  discriminations  of  this  matter  have, 
in  time  past,  been  four-footed  instincts ;  let  us  try  to  ennoble 
them,  by  giving  them  the  support  and  the  exalted  step  of  know- 
ledge and  principles. 

The  various  interrogative  sentences  were  named  in  the  seven- 
teenth section:  and  on  that  division,  the  discriminations  are 
here  made. 

In  the  first  case.  As  the  emphatic  use  of  pitch  is  on  a  sin- 
gle word,  or  at  most  on  two  or  three,  there  is  no  liability  to 
mistake  emphasis,  for  declarative  (questions  with  the  thorough 
intonation.  In  the  second.  It  was  shown,  that  the  partial 
expression  is  generally  applied  to  common,  pronominal,  and 
adverbial  questions.  These  therefore,  even  with  a  solitary 
third,  or  fifth,  or  octave,  cannot  possibly  be  confounded  with 
cases  of  emphasis  on  these  same  intervals,  in  sentences  without 


THE  EMPHASIS  OF  PITCH.  3g5 

the  grammatical  construction.  Whether  it  might  be  proper  to 
consider  a  partial  interrogation,  when  made  with  a  single  inter- 
rogative interval,  as  conjoining  the  conditions  of  interrogation 
and  of  emphasis,  thereby  justifying  the  term  interrogative  em- 
phasis, may  be  left  for  future  inquiry  and  arrangement.  In  the 
third.  Many  phrases  having  the  form  of  a  question,  seem 
nevertheless  to  hang  doubtfully  between  an  interrogative  and 
an  assertive  meaning.  When  such  phrases  can  be  fairly  resolved 
into  an  interjective  appeal ;  or  a  negative  question ;  or  one  of 
belief,  the  positive  temper  of  the  sentiment  generally  calls  for 
an  intonation  in  the  downward  concrete,  as  shown  in  the  thirty- 
second  section.  With  these  questions  then,  emphasis  by  a  rising 
interval,  cannot  be  confounded.  The  following  examples  are  by 
editorial  punctuation,  marked  as  questions :  but  the  above 
named  conditions  seem  to  apply  so  clearly  to  them,  that  I  would 
exclude  the  interrogative  intervals,  and  designate  these  virtual 
affirmations  by  a  positive  downward  intonation. 

What  should  he  in  that  Caesar? 
AVhy  should  that  name  be  sounded  more  l.han  yours? 


Casca.  What  night  is  this  ? 

Cassias.     A  very  pleasing  night  to   honest  men. 
Casca.       AVho  ever  knew  the  heavens  menace  so  ? 


Shylock.  Ay,  his  breast : 

So  says  the  bond!  Doth  it  not  nolle  judge? 
Nearest  his  heart,  those  are  the  very  words. 

In  the  first  of  these  instances,  Cassius  does  positively  mean, 
—  there  is  nothing  in  C?esar,  nor  in  his  name.  In  the  second, 
Casca  would  say, —  it  is  a  dreadful  night;  the  heavens  were 
never  known  to  menace  so.  And  in  the  last,  Shylock,  by  his 
negative  question,  does  triumphantly  declare, —  you  know  it, 
noble  judge.  If  therefore  instead  of  the  positive,  the  interro- 
gatory intonation  should  be  applied  either  thoroughly  or  in  part. 


366  THE  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  RISING  OCTAVE. 

to  these  phrases,  their  meaning  would  be  obscured,  or  lost. 
Consequently,  no  case  of  rising  emphasis  can  be  mistaken  for 
such  interrogative  constructions.  When  figurative  questions, 
and  when  real  exclamatory  sentences,  carry  their  expression  on 
one  or  two  downward  intervals,  it  may  be  made  a  subject  for 
future  inquiry,  whether  this  case  might  be  called  the  exclamatory 
emphasis. 

We  go  on  to  enumerate  the  intervals  of  pitch,  employed  in 
emphasis. 


Of  the  UmpJiasis  of  the  Rising  Octave. 

The  concrete  rise  of  the  Octave,  on  a  single  syllable  in  a 
current  diatonic  melody,  does,  by  its  expression,  remarkably 
distinguish  that  syllable,  from  others,  bearing  the  interval  of  a 
tone ;  and  its  eifect  has  the  true  character  of  emphasis,  even 
without  the  excessive  stress,  heretofore  considered  almost  the 
sino-le  essential  in  the  definition  of  that  term. 

The  reader  has  been  told  more  than  once, —  the  intervals  of 
the  scale  are  appreciable,  even  in  the  momentary  flight  of  an 
immutable  syllable :  and  that  on  these  syllables  the  expression 
of  the  octave,  is  generally  eifected  by  a  skip  of  radical  pitch, 
from  the  level  of  current  speech  to  the  bight  of  that  interval 
above  it.  The  emphasis  of  the  octave  appears  then  under  the 
form  both  of  slow  concrete,  and  of  radical  change ;  and  let 
it  be  understood  here,  that  these  two  different  forms  of  pitch 
are  implied,  when  we  speak  of  the  emphasis  of  other  wider 
intervals  of  the  scale.  j 

The  octave  is  employed  emphaticall}',  for  the  expression  of  ■ 
astonishment  and  admiration,  embracing  a  sentiment  of  inquiry 
or  doubt;  and  for  the  special  enforcing  of  one  word  above 
others,  in  an  interrogative  sentence  :  but  this  indeed  rarely ;  for 
there  is  a  kind  of  mew  in  its  long-drawn  concrete,  that  excludes  it 
from  those  elevated  purposes  of  speech  which  it  is  the  design  of 
science  to  investigate,  and  of  taste  to  approve.  . 

The   octave  carries   the   spirit  of  a   quick,   a  taunting,  or  a 


THE  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  RISING  OCTAVE.  357 

mirthful  interrogative ;  and  is  perhaps  never  used  in  a  calm, 
serious,  and  dignified  question.  It  would  perhaps  be  admissible 
in  the  following  sneering  exultation  of  Shylock  over  Antonio. 

'  Monies  is  your  suit. 

What  should  I  say  to  you  ?  should  I  not  say  ? 
Hath  a  dog  money?  Is  it  possible 
A  cur  can  lend  three  thousand  ducats? 

Every  word  of  the  two  last  questions  will  bear  an  interrogative 
intonation  :  but  the  terms  dog,  and  cur,  being  emphatic  allusions 
to  the  previous  rating  of  Shylock  by  Antonio,  convey  the  senti- 
ment of  revengeful  triumph,  as  well  as  an  immediate  antithesis 
to  their  former  contemptuous  application  to  the  speaker,  by  being 
run  lip  to  the  piercing  treble  of  the  octave.  Perhaps  some 
readers  might  be  disposed  to  set  a  more  dignified  form  of  into- 
nation on  these  questions,  by  considering  them  as  Appealing ; 
and  by  employing  a  general  current  of  downward  thirds,  with  a 
downward  octave  on  the  words  dog  and  cur.  I  only  say,  they 
will  bear  what  is  here  given,  without  making  preference  the 
subject  of  discussion.  The  readings  proposed  throughout  this 
essay  are  for  illustration,  and  their  design  is  fulfilled,  whether 
or  not,  they  exactly  accord  with  common  opinion.  There  is  a 
best  in  the  works  of  every  art :  but  the  latitude  of  variation, 
within  the  pale  of  principles,  has  an  ample  and  liberal  scope,  that 
sometimes  admits  even  cases  of  unsuccessful  search  after  excel- 
lence. Over  such  failures  the  intelligent  critic  will  be  neither 
quarrelsome  nor  severe. 

The  emphasis  of  the  octave,  by  a  change  of  radical  pitch  is 
exemplified  in  the  following  lines  : 

'Zounds,  show  me  •what  thou'It  do: 

Woo't  weep?  ViQo'i  fight?  yroo't  fast?  woo't  tear  thyself? 

The  exasperated  energy  of  Hamlet,  in  his  encounter  with 
Laertes,  calls  for  the  highest  pitch  of  interrogation  on  the  Avords 
here  marked ;  but  these  words  do  not  admit  of  the  slow  concrete. 
To  fulfill  the  purposes  of  expression,  they  are  to  be  immediately 
transferred  by  radical  change  to  an  octave  above  the  word  woo't. 
which  in  its  several  places,  is  at  the  common  level  of  the  voice. 


368  THE  EMPAHSIS  OF  THE  RISING  FIFTH. 

The  emphatic  syllable,  ulien  thus  raised,  is  still  further  endowed 
with  the  character  of  an  interrogative  interval,  by  a  rapid  flight 
through  the  concrete  octave,  agreeably  to  the  description  in  a 
former  section.  In  short,  the  first  seven  words  of  the  second 
line  do  really  skip,  alternately  ascending  and  descending, 
between  the  extremes  of  an  octave. 

"While  these  lines  are  before  us,  wc  may  notice  the  contrast 
between  the  two  movements  of  pitch  in  the  octave :  for  the  word 
tear^  having  an  indefinite  quantity,  admits  freely  of  the  slow 
concrete :  and  the  voice,  after  being  restrained  to  the  discrete 
skip,  on  the  preceding  immutable  syllables,  more  freely  and 
gracefully  assumes  on  this  word,  the  intonation  of  a  continuous 
rise. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising  Fifth. 

The  relation  of  the  concrete  fifth  to  the  octave,  was  shown 
formerly,  as  regards  its  interrogative  character.  As  a  sign  of 
emphatic  sense,  or  of  passion,  the  fifth  is  less  impressive  than 
the  octave :  for  it  has  not  the  piercing  influence  of  the  latter 
interval.  There  is  however,  more  dignity  in  the  importance  it 
gives  to  a  syllable.  In  the  following  lines,  from  Satan's  address 
to  the  sun,  the  emphasis  on  tliee,  may  be  made  by  the  concrete 
rising  fifth ;  as  suitable  to  its  exulting  sentiment. 

Evil  be  thou  my  good :  by  thee  at  least 
Divided  empire  ■with  Heaven's  king  I  hold. 

It  is  said  here,  and  we  allow  the  same  cautious  latitude  for 
other  cases,  that  a  certain  form  of  emphatic  expression  onay  be 
employed  :  since  on  many  occasions,  the  emphasis  may  be  varied. 
Thus  in  the  present  example,  the  syllable  thee,  might  be  in  the 
Avave  of  the  fifth,  or  third,  or  even  the  second  ;  but  in  the  last  case, 
a  want  of  the  peculiar  expression  of  the  fifth,  must  be  supplied 
by  a  long  quantity,  and  by  the  use  of , the  radical,  or  median,  or 
vanishing  stress,  on  the  wave  of  the  second  so  employed.  But 
wc  will  go  further  with  the  liberal  construction  allowed  by  every 


THE  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  RISING  THIRD.  369 

broad  and  self  confiding  system ;  and  under  the  principles  of 
this  work,  are  ready  to  accord  with  the  free-will  of  any  enlight- 
ened taste,  that  in  the  above  example,  might  prefer  even  the 
positive  emphasis  of  a  downward  interval.  And  this,  not  incon- 
sistently ;  for  in  a  well  ordered  system,  such  variations  are 
always  made  by  the  good  sense  that  allows  them. 

In  the  following  lines,  the  emphasis  of  the  fifth  on  the  word 
beauty;  is  perhaps  not  absolutely  unchangeable :  but  it  certainly 
produces  a  brightness  of  picture,  well  adapted  to  the  sentiment, 
and  which  cannot  perhaps  be  so  well  eifected  in  any  other  way. 

Tears  like  the  rain-drops  may  fall  •without  measure, 
But  rapture  and  beauty  they  cannot  recall. 

The  eff"ect  in  this  case  will  be  more  finished,  if  after  the  con- 
crete rise  of  the  syllable  beau,  through  the  fifth,  ty  be  discretely 
brought  down  to  the  pitch  of  the  current  melody.  It  may  be 
added,  that  a  like  intonation  may  be  set  on  j-apture. 

The  emphasis  of  the  fifth,  by  a  skip  of  radical  pitch,  is  well 
exemplified  in  the  line  formerly  quoted  to  show  the  radical 
stress. 

Which,  if  not  victory,  is  yet  revenge. 

Here  the  abrupt  stress  on  the  syllable  vie,  requires  assistance 
from  intonation  :  and  this  is  given,  by  setting  the  short  syllable 
vie  at  a  discrete  fifth  above  the  place  of  not. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising   Third. 

The  striking  intonation  of  the  octave  and  the  fifth,  is  suited 
to  the  earnest  spirit  of  colloquial  utterance,  and  to  the  forcible 
sentiments  of  the  drama.  The  rise  of  the  third,  though  still 
denoting  both  interrogation  and  emphasis,  produces  a  less 
intense,  but  a  more  dignified  impression. 

The  rise  of  the  third  may  be  set  on  the  word  he,  in  the  fol- 
lowing lines. 

Who  first  seduced  them  to  that  foul  revolt? 
The  infernal  Serpent;  he  it  was,  whose  guile. 
Stirred  up  with  envy  and  revenge  — 


370  THE  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  RISING  SEMITONE. 

Til  ere  are  some  phrases  simply  interrogative ;  and  unaccom- 
panied by  those  other  sentiments,  formerly  ascribed  to  the  octave 
and  the  fifth.  Tlie  emphatic  distinction  in  these  cases,  is  made 
with  the  moderately  attractive  influence  of  the  third. 

Dost  thou  think  Alexander  looked  o'  this  fashion, 
i'  the  earth? 

If,  in  this  example  Alexatider,  this  fashion,  and  earth,  be 
taken  as  emphatic,  the  distinction  will  be  appropriately  made 
by  the  third.  Should  the  intonation  on  these  words  be  in  the 
wider  interval  of  the  fifth  or  octave,  it  would  imply  an  eagerness 
of  inquiry,  and  a  light  familiarity  of  address,  not  suggested  by 
the  sense  of  the  question,  nor  consistent  with  the  temper  of 
Hamlet's  moralizing  reflections. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  illustrate  the  radical  skip  of  the 
third,  in  relation  to  emphasis.  The  word  victory,  in  a  preced- 
ing example,  may  be  executed  on  this  discrete  interval,  if  the 
reader  should  think  the  fifth,  -there  employed,  too. high:  for  it 
will  exemplify  either  case,  according  to  the  degree  of  energy 
ascribed  to  it. 

The  third,  as  shown  in  the  sixteenth  section,  is  employed  on 
the  emphatic  words  of  conditional,  concessive,  and  hypothetical 
phrases. 

The  minor  third,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  minor  scale,  is 
the  essential  means  of  plaintive  expression  in  song :  but  it  is  not 
to  be  used  in  the  system  of  speaking-intonation,  set  forth  in  this 
work.  This  system  regards  it  as  a  fault  in  speech,  when  heard, 
as  it  not  unfrequcntly  is.  We  cannot  then  give  it  a  place,  in 
the  history  of  emphasis. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Rising  Semitone. 

I  OMIT  here,  a  notice  of  the  tone  or  second.  The  reader 
must  now,  be  so  well  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  dia- 
tonic melody,  as  to  admit,  that  the  simple  rise  of  a  tone,  having 
no  attractive  or  peculiar  expression,  cannot,  as  far  as  regards 


THE  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  RISING  SEMITONE.  371 

pitch,  be  emphatic.  Indeed,  the  other  intervals  are  emphatic 
only  by  their  contrast  with  this  general  current  of  the  simple 
second.  It  is  true,  a  syllable  is  made  emphatic  by  quantity ; 
and  that  quantity  in  plain  and  dignified  utterance,  is  commonly 
a  prolongation  through 'the  doubling  of  the  second  into  the  form 
of  a  wave.  But  the  impressivcness  is  here  an  effect  of  time, 
not  of  intonation. 

As  the  semitone  has  a  peculiar  expression,  it  can  fulfill  the 
condition  of  emphasis,  when  laid  upon  a  single  word  in  the 
course  of  a  diatonic  melody.  It  rarely  happens  however,  that 
this  expression  is  found  thus  insulated :  for  if  a  plaintive  senti- 
ment issues  from  one  word,  it  generally  spreads  its  effect  over 
the  whole  of  the  phrase  or  sentence ;  thus  constituting  the 
chromatic  melody,  and  thereby  destroying  the  solitary  import- 
ance, or  proper  emphasis  of  the  semitone. 

But  it  may  then  be  asked,  how  emphasis,  when  required,  can 
be  efiected  in  a  chromatic  melody.  It  may  be  done  by  stress  in 
its  various  forms,  and  by  time ;  for  the  semitone  is  set  on  sylla- 
bles of  all  quantities.  It  may  likewise  be  effected  by  intonation, 
in  the  following  manner. 

When  a  syllable  calls  for  the  emphasis  of  pitch  in  a  chro- 
matic melody,  that  emphasis  cannot  be  a  simple  concrete 
rise  through  the  second,  third,  fifth,  or  eighth ;  for  these 
movements,  by  over-sliding  the  semitone,  would  destroy  the 
plaintiveness,  which  by  the  conditions  of  the  case  should  be 
heard.  But  should  a  syllable  of  the  chromatic  melody  be  ele- 
vated by  a  discrete  radical  change,  from  the  level  of  the  current, 
to  a  third,  fifth,  or  octave  above  it ;  and  when  thus  raised,  be  there 
uttered,  however  rapidly,  through  the  interval  of  a  semitone,  it 
is  evident,  the  plaintive  or  chromatic  character  must  be  pre- 
served :  and  since  the  syllable,  by  a  transfer  of  the  radical 
pitch,  is  advanced  to  a  higher  point  of  the  scale,  its  semitone  is, 
by  the  additional  means  of  this  acuteness  in  position,  con- 
spicuously impressed  on  the  ear,  and  thus  fully  answers  to  the 
definition  of  emphasis. 


372  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  DOWNWARD  CONCRETE. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Dowmvard  Concrete. 

The  downward  movement  of  the  voice,  expresses  positiveness 
and  surprise,  and  on  a  single  long  syllable,  forms-  the  feeble 
cadence.  But  we  are  now  to  consider  tlie  manner  of  employing 
this  concrete,  for  the  purpose  of  emphasis,  on  one  or  more  words, 
in  a  current  melody. 

The  wider  downward  concrete,  is  a  very  common  form  of  em- 
phatic distinction :  and  exerts  a  powerful  attraction  over  the  ear. 
It  cannot  however,  for  a  plain  reason,  be  used  in  sentences  of 
thorough  interrogative  intonation :  nor  is  it,  in  its  simple  forms 
employed  in  the  chromatic  melody.  When  necessary  in  this 
latter  case,  for  denoting  surprise  or  positiveness,  it  may  be 
introduced  as  a  constituent  of  an  unequal  wave :  for  the  rise  of 
a  semitone  as  the  first  constituent,  will  preserve  the  plaintive- 
ness ;  and  a  subsequent  continuation  downwards  through  the 
eighth,  or  fifth,  or  third,  will  join  to  this  plaintiveness,  the 
required  emphasis  of  the  falling  concrete. 

AYhen  I  had  occasion,  in  its  proper  place,  to  speak  of  the 
descent  of  the  voice,  both  by  concrete  and  by  radical  pitch,  that 
descent  was  not  otherwise  represented,  than  taking  place  from 
the  line  of  the  current  melody.  It  is  now  necessary  to  point 
out  another  form  of  its  movement.  In  the  twenty-second  sec- 
tion, a  notation  is  given  of  the  following  line : 

Seems,  madam,  nay,  it  is!  I  know  not  seems. 

In  that  notation,  one  of  its  emphatic  syllables  is  marked  with  a 
downward  fifth :  the  concrete  appearing  on  the  staff,  with  its 
radical  the  whole  extent  of  that  interval  above  the  current 
melody.  I  then  merely  pointed  out  this  peculiarity :  not  wish- 
ing, in  that  descriptive  view  of  the  downward  concrete,  to 
anticipate  the  history  of  its  application  to  this  especial  subject 
of  emphasis. 

Now,  should  is,  in  the  above  line  be  uttered  as  a  feeble 
cadence ;  that  is,  should  the  descent  of  a  third  from  the  line  of 
the  current  melody,  be  made  on  this  word,  as  if  it  were  the  close 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  DOWNWARD  CONCRETE.  373 

of  a  sentence,  it  will  not  have  the  emphatic  force,  required  by 
the  sense.  It  cannot  be  then,  a  simple  descent  of  the  voice 
from  the  line  of  a  current  melody,  which  gives  an  impressive 
character  to  this  form  of  emphasis. 

The  full  effect  of  the  downward  concrete,  in  this  case,  is  pro- 
duced by  commencing  its'  radical,  on  a  line  of  pitch  above  the 
current  melody,  and  descending  to  that  line  or  below  it,  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  of  expression.  The  hight  at  which  the  outset 
or  radical  of  the  descending  concrete  is  to  be  taken,  (Jepends  on 
the  degree  of  positiveness  or  surprise,  contemplated  in  the  em- 
phasis. That  the  expressive  effects  of  the  downward  concrete 
proceed  from  its  affinity  to  the  nature  of  a  cadence,  I  will  not 
assert.  It  would  seem  however, —  something  like  an  ultimate 
affirmation,  is  implied  in  a  very  positive  emphasis ;  it  being  as 
much  as  to  say,  this  affirmation  is  beyond  doubt,  then  let  the 
subject  here  be  closed. 

It  may  perhaps  be  asked,  why  the  downward  vanish,  em- 
phatically used  in  the  current  melody,  does  not  produce  the 
effect  of  a  cadence,  and  thus  interfere  with  the  sense  of  dis- 
course. Let  it  be  recollected,  the  feeblest  form  of  the  cadence 
consists  in  the  concrete  descent  through  the  third ;  consequently 
the  downward  emphasis  can  at  most,  amount  but  to  this  feeble 
form.  Again,  the  proper  cadence  is  continued  downward  from 
the  line  of  the  current  melody  :  whereas  the  emphatic  downward 
concrete,  begins  at  a  point  of  pitch  much  above  the  line  of 
melody,  and  does  not  always  descend  below  it. 

And  further  :  speech  has  two  means  of  communicating  thoughts 
and  feelings.  One,  by  a  conventional  language,  which  to  the 
eye,  as  well  as  the  ear,  can  describe  them  all.  The  other,  by 
the  various  Modes  of  the  voice,  that  instinctively  express  many 
of  them,  apart  from  the  use  of  words.  Now  a  spoken  cadence 
is  denoted,  both  by  the  vocal  and  the  conventional  means.  Thus 
the  intonation  of  the  cadence,  together  with  the  sense  and  struc- 
ture of  the  phrase,  and  with  the  pause,  always  marks  the  close. 
Consequently,  an  emphatic  downward  vanish  in  the  course  of 
the  melody,  can  never  be  confounded  with  its  termination. 


374  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  DOWNWARD  OCTAVE. 

Of  the  Umjjhasis  of  the  Downivard  Octave. 

After  ^Yllat  has  been  said  generally  of  the  downward  em- 
phasis, it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  state  that  the  octave,  on  a 
long  syllable,  gives  the  highest  degree  of  this  species  of  empha- 
sis.    The  word  hell  in  the  following  lines  requires  the  octave. 

So  frown'd  the  mighty  combatants,  that  Uell 

Grew  darker  at  their  frown. 

9 

This  is  taken  from  that  fine  picture  of  threatful  hostility 
between  Satan  and  Death,  in  the  second  book  of  Paradif^e  Lost. 
And  whoever  would  give  this  part  with  a  forcible  and  somewhat 
dramatic  effect,  Avill  find  it  difficult  to  bring  out  the  full  sense  of 
the  poet,  except  by  the  above  directed  intonation.  The  mean- 
ing of  the  author,  if  we  may  interpret  it,  is  not  to  represent 
simply,  without  marking  its  degree,  an  increase  of  darkness 
produced  by  the  figurative  gloom  of  the  brows  of  the  combatants. 
Such  a  picture  would  be  too  tame  and  trite  for  this  dreadful  edge 
of  battle.  The  thought  becomes  worthy  of  the  occasion,  when 
the  frowns,  are  said  to  be  able  to  blacken  the  deep  darkness 
even  of  Hell. 

The  above  forcible  intonation  has  the  effect  of  the  concrete 
pitch  of  the  downward  octave :  and  as  we  have  seen,  the  down- 
Avard  concrete  emphasis  always  commences  at  a  higher  pitch  than 
that  of  the  current  melody,  so  when  the  downward  emphasis  is  on 
immutable  syllables,  the  change  of  radical  pitch  is  likewise  from 
an  assumed  point  above  the  current  melody.  The  following  pas- 
sage from  the  second  book  of  Milton,  may  serve  for  illustration. 

Far  less  abhor'd  than  these 
Vex'd  Scj'lla,  bathing  in  the  sea  that  parts 
Calabria  from  the  hoarse  Trinacrian  shore. 

Others  may  please  themselves,  with  their  own  vocal  expression 
of  this  first  line,  I  can  satisfy  my  ear,  only  by  a  concrete  rising 
octave  denoting  surprise,  or  admiration  on  far  ;  then  a  descent 
by  the  radical  pitch  of  an  octave,  to  less,  for  the  emphatic  dis- 
tinction of    that  syllable ;    thus  returning   to   the  level  of  the 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  DOWNWARD  FIFTH.  375 

radical  of  far^  in  the  line  of  the  current  melody.  It  is  not  the 
place,  but  I  may  say  here,  that  ah  is  to  be  raised  an  octave  by 
radical  pitch,  and  liorrd  returned  by  a  downward  concrete  of 
that  same  interval ;  thus  completing  the  expression  of  this  forci- 
ble sentiment,  by  a  falling  and  a  rising  discrete  skip,  between  a 
rising  and  a  falling  concrete. 

A  similar  intonation  is  appropriate  to  the  line  that  follows  in 
the  text  of  the  poem. 

Nor  uglier  follow  the  night-hag. 

Here,  nor  rises  by  a  concrete  octave ;  ng  descends  discretely 
by  that  same  interval ;  while  li^  from  the  sentiment  not  being 
so  strong  as  in  the  preceding  case,  rises  by  the  discrete  third,  or 
fifth,  and  then  descends  by  the  concrete,  to  the  level  of  wor,  in 
the  current  melody. 

In  these  examples,  nothing  is  said  of  the  stress,  or  aspiration, 
necessary  for  the  full  vocal  display  of  these  passages.  We  here 
only  regard  the  downward  movement. 

If  it  be  asked,  why  this  descent  by  radical  piteh  has  not  the 
effect  of  a  cadencial  close  ;  it  may  be  answered, —  it  has  indeed 
the  nature  and  somewhat  the  effect  of  a  cadence  :  but  it  is  still 
an  imperfect  one,  and  not  suflScient  for  a  full  termination  of  dis- 
course. For  the  descent  is  from  a  point  assumed  above  the 
current  line,  and  its  downward  reach  is  to  about  the  level  of  that 
line :  whereas  the  true  and  final  cadence  is  made  by  a  descent 
of  two  radicals  below  the  current  melody.  Add  to  this,  the 
reason  given  above,  why  the  downward  concrete  emphasis  is 
not  liable  to  be  confounded  with  the  cadence ;  for  here  too,  the 
discrete  emphasis  is  readily  distinguishable  from  the  cadence,  as 
denoted  by  the  words,  and  sense,  and  pause,  of  the  proper  close. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Downward  Fifth. 

The  similarity  of  this  interval  to  the  octave,  the  difference 
consisting  in  degree  only,  renders  it   unnecessary  to  do  more. 


376  EMPHASIS  OF  THE.  DOWNWARD  THIRD. 

than  quote  a  phrase  in  which  the  less  energetic  emphasis  of  the 
do-vrnward  fifth  may  be  employed.  The  word  courageous,  in 
the  following  extract  from  the  dramatic  contention  between 
Gabriel  and  Satan,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  book  of  Paradise 
Lost,  bears  this  downward  fifth  on  its  accented  syllable. 

Cour-fl'geous  chief! 
The  first  in  flight  from  pjiin  I 

The  radical  change  of  the  downward  fifth  may  be  made  on 
the  word  subject,  in  the  following  lines,  from  the  first  act  of 
Julius  Ocesar.  In  the  second  scene,  after  Cassius  has  excited 
Brutus  to  a  proud  declaration  of  his  love  of  honor,  he  says, 

I  know  that  virtue  to  be  in  you,  Brutus, 
As  well  as  I  do  know  your  outward  favor. 
Well,  honor  is  the  subject  of  my  story. 

If  this  is  allowed  to  be  the  emphatic  word,  the  sentiment  here 
conveyed,  that  this  honor  is  positively,  the  ver^  matter  he  de- 
sires to  speak  of,  should  be  expressed  by  a  downward  intonation 
on  the  word  subject.  But  the  accented  syllable  of  this  word  is 
too  short  to  bear  the  concrete.  The  expression  is  therefore  to 
be  accomplished  through  a  discrete  descent,  by  assuming  the 
first  syllable  sub,  at  a  fifth  above  the  current  melody,  and 
returning  to  the  line  of  that  melody,  on  ject,  by  the  radical 
skip  of  a  fifth.  Some  other  form  of  emphasis  on  this  word 
may,  in  a  manner,  show  the  sense  here  ascribed  to  the  declara- 
tion. But  to  an  ear  of  judgment  and  taste,  perhaps  none  will 
give  so  bright  a  picture  of  the  sense  as  the  intonation,  here 
proposed. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Downward  Third. 

The  downward  Third  expresses  a  more  moderate  degree  of 
the  sense  and  sentiment,  conveyed  by  the  preceding  intervals, 
the  octave,  and  fifth.     Thus  in  tlie  following  reply  of  Hamlet, 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  DOWNWARD  THIRD.  377 

the  word   Queen  does  not  seem  to  require  a  stronger  emphatic 
distinction,  than  that  of  a  falling  third. 

Queen.     Have  you  forgot  me? 

Ham.  No,  by  the  rood,  not  so  : 

You  are  the  Queen,  your  husband's'brother's  wife. 

And  here  we  may  again  notice  the  difference  above  referred 
to,  in  the  effect  of  the  downward  third,  Avhen  employed  as  em- 
phasis, and  as  a  feeble  cadence :  and  it  is  a  striking  illustration 
of  this  difference.  For  if  the  word  Queen  merely  descends 
concretely,  from  the  line  of  the  current  melody  to  a  third  below 
it,  the  sentence  might  pass  for  a  complete  one,  terminated  at 
that  point  by  the  feeble  cadence.  When  the  radical  of  this 
syllable  is  raised  to  a  third  above  the  current  melody,  and  then 
brought  concretely  down  to  it,  in  the  manner  of  emphasis,  even 
a  subsequent  pause  does  not  produce  the  like  effect  of  a  close, 
but  rather  suo;2;ests  the  idea  of  a  continuation  of  the  sense. 

The  emphasis  of  the  downward  third  by  change  of  radical 
skip,  may  be  made  by  a  transition  from  that  to  too^  in  the  follow- 
ing phrase. 

Cassius.     They  shouted  thrice ;  what  was  the  last  cry  for  ? 
Casca.       Why,  for  that  too. 

Here  the  word  that  is  to  be  taken  a  third  above  tl>e  line  of 
the  current  melody ;  and  too,  at  the  level  of  its  line. 

It  was  said  formerly, —  the  Prepared  cadence  is  produced  by 
the  downward  radical  change  of  a  third,  with  either  a  rising  or 
a  falling  concrete,  preceding  the  triad.  Now,  although  in  this^ 
case  the  preparatory  fall  in  radical  pitch,  is  to  a  third  below  the 
line  of  the  current  melody,  still  this  descent  alone  does  not  pro- 
duce a  close.  For  the  syllable,  after  falling  through  this  discrete 
third,  does  not  necessarily  end  with  the  feeble  downward  tone 
required  at  a  close ;  and  it  will  be  recollected  that  this  downward 
skip  through  a  third,  at  the  end  of  a  sentence,  was  called  a  false 
cadence,  from  its  not  having  the  characteristic  of  a  full  and  per- 
fect close.  Consider  further,  that  the  structure  and  sense  of  the 
phraseology  have  a  share  of  influence,  in  denoting  the  close. 
This  downward  radical  skip  of  the  prepared  cadence,  has  in  a 
25 


378  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  WAVE. 

degree,  the  effect  of  emphasis,  by  forcibly  impressing  on  the  ear 
the  most  complete  termination  of  the  sentence.* 

The  downward  Second,  whether  concrete  or  discrete,  being  a 
constituent  of  the  diatonic  melody,  has  no  emphatic  power.  It 
serves  to  give  variety  to  the  current,  by  occasionally  taking  the 
place  of  the  rising  interval.  The  downward  concrete  second  on 
the  last  constituent  of  a  falling  tritone,  makes  the  triad  of 
the  cadence. 

The  downward  Semitone  has  peculiarity  sufficient  to  mark  a 
strong  emphatic  distinction :  but  I  am  not  aware  of  its  being 
ever  introduced  alonie,  into  the  diatonic  melody :  and  in  the 
chromatic,  it  merely  serves  the  purpose  of  variety  similar  to  that 
of  the  downward  second  in  the  diatonic  current. 


Of   the  EmpTiasis  of  the  Wave. 

The  junction  of  opposite  concretes,  by  its  positive  effect  upon 
the  ear,  gives  emphatic  distinction  to  syllables  and  words. 

If  a  history  of  the  voice,  were  to  be  written,  from  the  prac- 
tice of  the  mass  of  readers,  and  not  from  cultivated  and  rare 
examples  of  excellence,  it  would  be  necessary  to  add  a  Melody 
of  the  Wave,  to  that  of  the  diatonic  and  chromatic ;  since  many, 
yes,  and  some  of  the  world's  great  readers,  and  actors  too,  apply 
the  intonation  of  wider  waves,  to  every  long  and  emphatic  sylla- 
ble. This,  to  say  the  least  of  it  as  a  fault,  does,  by  giving  the 
impressive  effect  of  the  wave  to  a  whole  sentence,  prevent  its 
employment  as  the  means  of  emphasis  on  a  single  Avord. 

The  wave,  according  to  its  forms,  expresses  admiration,  sur- 
prise, interrogation,  mirthful  -wonder,  sneer  and  scorn;  and  is 
emphatically  used  on  long  quantities,  embracing  these  senti- 
ments. 

The  dignified  diatonic  melody  is  made  by  the  wave  of  the 
second :  and  this  is  only  a  method  of  adding  the  gravity  of  its 

•  Let  not  the  reader,  on  this  hint,  unnecessarily  multiply  terms,  and  call  this 
the  Emphatic  cadence,  or  the  Cadcncial  emphasis. 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  EQUAL  WAVE.  379 

last  constituent,  the  downward  second,  to  the  lighter  effect  of 
the  previous  ascent  of  that  interval ;  and  of  producing  at  the 
same  time  the  length  of  syllable,  so  essential  to  solemn  utter- 
ance, without  the  risk  of  falling  into  the  protracted  note  of 
song.  But  the  wave  of  the  second  never  performs  the  part  of 
emphasis,  by  its  intonation  alone.  "Waves  of  wider  intervals  in 
giving  time  and  dignity  to  utterance,  by  doubling  the  concrete 
of  which  they  are  respectively  composed,  have  besides,  a 
striking  peculiarity  when  occasionally  heard  as  an  emphatic 
distinction,  in  the  diatonic  melody. 

When  the  sentiment  of  scorn  occurs  in  dignified  discourse,  it 
is  denoted  by  the  vanishing  stress,  or  by  aspiration,  joined  with 
either  the  simple  rise  or  fall  of  a  wider  concrete,  or  with  the 
direct  or  inverted  form  of  its  single  wave.  For  there  is  a 
degree  of  levity  and  familiarity  in  the  double  wave,  unsuitable 
to  dignified  discourse. 

In  considering  the  emphasis  of  the  wave,  it  is  not  my  inten- 
tion to  illustrate  all  its  forms.  If  the  reader  calls  to  mind  our 
history  of  this  expressive  sign,  he  may  be  able  to  do  it  for  him- 
self: and  there  are  too  many  varieties  of  the  wave  to  justify 
an  entire  enumeration  of  them.  I  shall  name  a  few  of  its 
forms. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Equal-single-direct  Wave 
of  the   Octave. 

The  Equal-single  wave  of  the  octave  actively  expresses  admi- 
ration and  surprise ;  and  when  hightencd  by  aspiration,  the 
vanishing  stress,  or  guttural  vibration,  has  the  additional  mean- 
ing of  sneer  and  scorn.  There  is  a  difference  in  the  effect  of 
this  sign  on  a  low,  and  on  a  high  pitch.  In  the  latter  case,  it 
has  more  of  the  character  of  raillery,  or  mirthful  comment  than 
of  wonder,  positiveness,  or  admiration. 

It  was  said,  the  wave  of  the  octave,  restricted  to  the  lower 
range  of  pitch,  might  be  used  in  grave  discourse.  Under  this 
view,  the  first  syllable  of  the  following  well-known  line,  from 


380  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  EQUAL  WAVE. 

Hamlet,  might  receive  the  emphasis  of  this  expressive  into- 
nation : 

Angels  and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us ! 

This  exclamation  embraces  the  feeling  of  astonishment,  and 
the  purpose  of  invocation.  Now  the  positiveness  of  invocation 
requires  the  downward  movement ;  while  astonishment,  which 
in  this  case,  implies  something  of  inquiry  or  doubt,  assumes  the 
upward.  But  the  invocation  appears  to  be  the  engrossing  inte- 
rest :  and  thus,  for  their  respective  expression,  the  syllable  An 
should  have  the  intonation  of  the  direct  wave ;  for  this,  by  its 
rising  interval  gives  the  doubtful  astonishment,  and  by  its  sub- 
sequent fall,  the  final  and  more  powerful  impression  of  the 
invocation. 

In  the  following  notation  of  this  exclamatory  sentence,  I  have 
set  the  direct  wave  of  the  octave,  on  the  first  syllable  An,  which 
on  an  indefinite  quantity,  beautifully  receives  it.  On  grace, 
an  emphatic  radical  skip  is  made  to  a  fifth  above  the  current 
melody,  with  a  subsequent  rapid  concrete  of  the  downward 
fifth ;  for  the  time  of  this  word  will  not  bear  the  slow  concrete  of 
that  interval.  The  other  syllables  have  the  concrete  and  the 
radical  pitch  of  a  tone,  and  the  Triad  of  the  cadence,  with  a 
downward  concrete  to  each  constituent;  the  whole  after  the 
first  syllable,  being  expressive  of  the  positiveness  of  the  invo- 
cation.* 


I 

—gels 

and 

min — is — ters 

of    grace 

de--fend 

us! 

7 

1 

^    ^        ^          \     ^ 

-J 

1 

\   ^ 

T 

T     f    T 

t 

T    ^ 

m. 

'                                                                        ^ 

*  I  may  here  refer  to  the  gesture,  accommodated  to  this  exclamatory  wave. 
In  fancying  the  Enacting  of  this  exclamation,  I  see  the  arms  each  in  horror 
tossed  up  alike  '  on  end,*  with  palm  and  finger  broadly  extended,  in  protec- 
tive repulsion.  But  the  practice  of  the  Stage,  after  more  than  two  hundred 
years  close  study  of  the  Part,  does  not  accord  with  this  view  of  it.  What 
intonation  is  given  to  An,  by  great  popular  Actors,  I  have  never,  though 
closely  listening,  been  able  to  trace.     This  syllable,  together  with  the  whole 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  EQUAL  WAVE.  381 

When  the  single-equal  wave  of  the  octave  is  inverted,  the 
emphasis  has  the  character  of  interrogation,  from  the  ascent  of 
the  last  constituent. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Equal-single-direct  Wave 
of  the  Fifth. 

This  form  of  the  wave  carries  a  degree  of  admiration  with 
its  affirmative  sentiment,  but  less  than  that  of  the  octave :  as 
in  the  following  example  from  the  contest  between  Satan  and 
Death. 

And  breath'st  defiance  here  and  scorn, 

Where  I  reign  king?  and  to  enrage  thee  more, 

Thy  king  and  lord! 

Whoever  will  read  the  whole  scene  from  which  these  lines  are 
taken,  with  the  dramatic  spirit  of  its  composition,  will  find  he 
may  set  the  wave,  now  under  consideration,  on  the  syllable  thy, 
as  a  full  expression  of  the  positiveness,  vaunting  authority,  and 
self-admiration,  on  the  part  of  Death. 

In  order  to  show  the  difference  in  character  between  this 
direct  wave,  and  its  inverted  form,  let  the  latter  be  substituted 
in  the  above  reading.     The  interrogative  effect  produced  by  the 

line,  is,  on  the  appearance  of  the  Ghost,  so  suddenly  shot-out,  that  the 
report  is  not  unlike  any  other  explosive  noise.  Astonishment  and  Invo- 
cation, on  instinctive  vocal  interjections,  are  generally  if  not  always,  made 
on  long  quantity :  and  we  see  how  admirably  the  word  angels  is  used  by  the 
Poet,  to  give  '  smoothness  to  its  torrent'  of  those  sentiments,  on  its  emphatic 
syllable.  But  the  Actor's  violence  and  hurry  seem  to  be  directed  by  anger  and 
impatience,  enforced  in  the  vehement  trick  of  striking  off  his  bonnet.  If  the 
bonnet  is  to  drop  through  the  agitation  of  horror,  let  the  true  personating  of 
horror  throw  it  off;  not  a  dextrous  maneuver,  when  the  hands  should  be  fixed, 
or  only  trembling  aghast.  I  would  not  here  wish  to  insinuate,  that  the  bonnet 
is  cast  off,  to  turn  aside,  or  confuse  a  scrutiny  of  the  faults  of  intonation  and 
gesture ;  since  with  that  genius  and  accomplishment,  which  the  Great  Actor 
is  supposed  to  admire  and  affect,  consciousness  of  error,  is  immediately  followed 
by  an  attempt  to  correct  it :  but  certainly,  nine-tenths,  if  not  more,  of  what 
ought  at  that  moment,  to  be  a  feeling  and  a  listening  Audience,  are  by  forcible 
distraction,  made  to  be  only  'Spectators  of  a  Cap-trap  on  the  floor. 


382  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  UNEQUAL  WAVE. 

ascent  of  its  last  constituent,  will  not  only  obscure  the  soul  of 
the  poet,  but  absolutely  cross  out  his  sense ;  for  it  will  seem  to 
make  Death  insinuate  a  question,  when  he  intends  to  be  unan- 
swerably affirmative. 

We  need  not  give  an  example  of  the  wave  of  the  Third  in 
its  equal-single  form.  If  we  suppose  in  it,  a  reduced  degree  of 
expression,  all  that  was  said  of  the  character  of  the  wave  of  the 
fifth,  whether  direct  or  inverted,  may  be  ascribed  to  the  wave  of 
the  third.     It  is  more  commonly  employed  than  the  fifth. 


Of  the  Empliasis  of  the  Unequal-single  Wave. 

It  was  said  formerly,  the  unequal  wave  is  used  for  the  expres- 
sion of  admiration,  surprise,  or  interrogation,  according  as  its 
course  is  direct  or  inverted.  With  a  wide  variation  of  the  rela- 
tive extent  of  its  constituents,  and  its  union  with  aspiration,  or 
vanishing  stress,  or  guttural  vibration,  it  becomes  a  forcible 
sign  of  scorn.  The  last  word  of  the  following  contemptuous 
retort  of  Coriolanus,  on  the  Volcian  general  who  had  called  him 
a  'boy  of  tears,'  might  perhaps  be  given  as  an  instance  of  the 
ascent  of  a  fifth,  and  the  subsequent  continuous  descent  of  an 
octave. 

False  hound  I 
If  you  have  writ  your  annals  true,  'tis  there 
That,  like  an  eagle  in  a  dove-cote,  I 
Fluttered  your  Voices  in  Corioli; 
Alone  I  did  it. Boy  1 

It  is  not  here  the  place,  to  notice  the  strong  aspiration  neces- 
sary to  blow  out  the  scornful  feeling  of  the  speaker.  I  have 
heard  this  syllable  pronounced  on  the  Stage,  with  the  simple 
downward  emphasis.  But  there  is  more  cool  wonder  and  self- 
satisfaction  in  this  intonation,  than  belongs  to  the  vexed  pride 
of  the  Roman,  and  to  his  vehement  retort  of  a  charge  of  incon- 
stancy, which  he  must  have  half  acknowledged  to  himself. 

In  the  following  lines,  from  the  contention  between  Brutus 


EMPHASIS  OF  THE  TREMOR.  383 

and  Cassius,  the  word  yea  may  bear  a  direct-unequal  wave,  con- 
sisting of  tlie  rise  of  a  tone  or  third,  connected  with  the  fall  of 
a  third  or  fifth. 

For,  from  this  day  forth, 
I'll  use  you  for  my  mirth,  yea,  for  my  laughter, 
When  you  are  waspish. 

If  this  word  be  given  without  aspiration,  or  vanishing  stress, 
or  guttural  vibration,  the  expression  will  not  perhaps,  differ 
much  from  that  of  the  equal  wave.  The  sneer  must  therefore 
depend  on  a  union  of  some  one  of  these  several  functions,  with 
the  simple  utterance. 

The  intonation  of  the  word  ivrong,  at  its  second  place,  in  the 
following  lino,  may  be  taken  as  an  example  of  the  emphasis  of 
an  unequal  wave,  with  its  first  constituent,  a  semitone,  and  its 
second,  a  downward  third,  or  fifth,  according  to  the  force  re- 
quired by  the  sentiment : 

You  wrong  me  every  way,  you  ivrong  me,  Brutus. 

I  do  not  give  an  illustration  of  the  double  wave  of  the  higher 
intervals.  Serious  and  elevated  discourse  can  have  all  its  pur- 
poses of  feeling  and  sense  fulfilled  without  it :  and  it  is  not  the 
design  of  this  essay,  to  point  out  to  children  and  drolls,  the 
scientific  mode  of  derisively  imitating  the  surprise  of  their 
neighbors,  by  the  curling  mockery  of  this  vulgar  intonation. 
How  far  the  double  wave  of  the  second  may  be  employed,  for 
temporal  emphasis,  I  leave  othei'S  to  determine. 

There  is  little  to  be  said  about  the  Time  of  the  concrete  as  a 
means  of  emphasis.  Its  variations  are  really  perceptible  by 
strict  attention:  but  they  are  so  closely  united  with  the  forms 
of  stress,  that  a  separate  consideration  of  them  is  unnecessary. 


Of  the  Emphasis  of  the  Tremor. 

The  tremor  may  be  applied  to  a  limited  succession  of  sylla- 
bles,  and  thus,   in  a  manner,   constitute  small  portions  of   a 


384  EMPHASIS  OF  THE  TREMOR. 

tremulous  melody.     We  have  here  to  consider  its  occasional 
application  to  one  or  two  words,  in  the  current  of  speech. 

When  the  tremor  is  made  on  a  single  tonic  element,  in  any 
interval  except  the  semitone,  it  is  the  sign  of  laughter ;  and 
consequently,  in  syllabic  utterance,  it  joins  to  the  emphatic 
sense  of  the  words,  the  expression  of  joy  and  admiration. 

Thou  art  the  ruins  of  the  noblest  man, 
That  ever  lived  in  the  tide  of  times. 

There  is  a  sentiment  of  exultation,  and  a  superlativeness  of 
compliment  in  this  eulogy,  that  cannot  be  properly  expressed 
by  the  simple  movement  of  the  concrete.  The  first  syllable  of 
the  emphatic  word  noblest,  when  uttered  with  the  tremulous 
intonation  of  the  wave  of  the  third  or  second,  gives  a  vocal 
consummation  to  the  feeling  of  this  exceeding  measure  of  praise. 

When  the  tremor  is  made  on  a  single  tonic  element,  in  the 
semitone,  or  its  waves,  it  constitutes  the  function  of  crying.  In 
the  chromatic  melody,  it  sets  a  more  marked  distinction  on  em- 
phatic words  of  tenderness,  grief,  supplication,  and  other  related 
states  of  feeling. 

The  following  passage  is  taken  from  a  dramatic  part  of  Para- 
due  Lost,  in  the  tenth  book ;  and  if  read  with  the  personal  action 
of  the  dialogue,  calls  for  the  highest  coloring  of  the  semitone, 
and  of  the  tremulous  movement. 

Forsake  me  not  thus,  Adam  !  witness,  Heayen, 

AVhat  love  sincere  and  reverence  in  my  heart 

I  bear  thee,  and  imweeting  have  offended, 

Unhappily  deceived!      Thy  suppliant 

I  beg,  and  clasp  thy  knees ;  bereave  me  not, 

"VN'hereon  I  live,  thy  gentle  looks,   thy  aid, 

Thy  counsel,  in  this  uttermost  distress. 

My  only  strength  and  stay.     Forlorn  of  thee. 

Whither  shall  I  betake  me,  -where  subsist  ? 

While  yet  we  live,  scarce  one  short  hour  perhaps, 

Between  us  two  let  there  be  peace;  both  joining. 

As  join'd  in  injuries,  one  enmity 

Against  a  foe  by  doom  express  assign'd  us. 

That  cruel  serpent.     Oji  me  exercise  not 

Thy  hatred  for  this  misery  befallen ; 


RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS.  385 

On  me  already  lost,  me  than  thyself 
More  miserable !     Both  have  sinn'd ;  but  thou 
Against  God  only;  I  against  God  and  thee; 
And  to  the  place  of  judgment  ■will  return, 
There  with  my  cries  importune  Heaven ;  that  all 
The  sentence,  from  thy  head  remov'd,  may  light 
On  me,  sole  cause  to  thee  of  all  this  wo ; 
Me,  me  only,  just  object  of  his  ire ! 

By  the  lines  that  follow  in  the  poem,  Eve  is  said  to  have  '  ended 
weeping,'  and  her  supplication,  to  have  been  accompanied  '  with 
tears  that  ceased  not  flowing.'  Now  speech  attended  with  tears 
always  exhibits  more  or  less  tremor.  Should  the  semitonic  tre- 
mor however,  be  applied  throughout  the  whole  of  this  passage, 
the  efiect  would  be  monotonous,  and  the  characteristic  concrete  of 
speech  would  be  lost  in  the  agitated  voice  of  crying.  The  min- 
gled efficacy  of  these  functions  may  be  appropriately  shown,  by 
using  the  tremor,  only  on  selected  emphatic  words.  It  may  be 
well  to  remark,  that  the  above  lines  are  not  entirely  subservient 
to  the  manner  of  delivery  here  suggested :  for  some  of  the  sylla- 
bles, embracing  the  deepest  feeling  of  contrition,  have  not  suffi- 
cient quantity  to  allow  the  eminent  intonation  of  the  tremor. 
The  word  heg,  and  the  accented  syllable  of  uttermost  are  of  this 
nature ;  for  though  they  admit  of  the  tremulous  function  to  a 
slight  degree,  still  their  limited  time  does  not  fully  satisfy  the 
demands  of  sentiment,  for  a  free  extension  of  the  voice.  The 
words  bereave,  on\j,  forlorn,  thee  and  more,  through  their  inde- 
finite quantity,  give  ample  measure  to  intonation.  On  these  then, 
and  others,  of  similar  time,  in  the  passage,  the  tremor  may  be 
effectually  set,  while  the  rest  of  the  melody,  not  so  marked,  must 
have  the  smooth  concrete  of  the  semitone. 


A  Recapitulating   View  of  Emphasis, 

On  a  close  consideration  of  the  foregoing  subject,  it  will  be 
found  difficult  to  draw  a  definite  line  of  separation  between  em- 
phatic words  and  the  rest  of  the  current  melody :  inasmuch  as 
some  of  the  fainter  cases  of  emphasis,  may  scarcely  differ  from 
the  simply  accentual  and  temporal  distinction  of  syllables. 


386  RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OE  EMPHASIS. 

To  -what  case  then,  is  the  term  emphasis  to  be  applied  ?  Not  to 
that  of  one  syllable,  which  differs  in  any  measure  of  time  or  stress 
from  another.  For  by  this  rule  we  may  regard  half  the  words 
of  language  as  emphatic  :  since  they  are  perpetually  inter-varying 
by  slight  differences  in  force,  and  quantity  ;  and  since  some 
important  forms  of  pitch,  as  the  second,  and  its  waves,  when  not 
assisted  by  time  and  stress,  are  occasionally  applied  to  syllables, 
without  producing  thereby  any  remarkable  distinction.  There 
are  however,  certain  impressive  characteristics  of  utterance  that 
forcibly  attract  the  attention  of  an  auditory.  Marked  effects  of 
stress,  extreme  length  in  quantity,  Avide  intervals  of  pitch,  and 
a  peculiar  quality  of  voice,  when  set  on  certain  words,  may  be 
considered  as  the  constituents  of  emphasis.  But  at  what  point 
in  the  respective  gradation  of  these  powers,  the  emphatic  char- 
acter rises  above  the  common  accent  of  the  melody,  cannot  be 
assigned,  and  perhaps  need  not  be  knoAvn. 

Emphasis  has,  in  the  preceding  parts  of  this  section,  been  re- 
garded as  expressive  of  certain  sentiments  and  thoughts,  through 
the  agency  of  the  five  modes  of  the  voice. 

Emphasis  may  likewise  be  considered  in  reference  to  its  gene- 
ral Purposes.  These  are :  First,  to  raise  one  or  more  words 
above  the  level  of  the  rest  of  the  sentence,  without  regard  to 
their  special  relationships  or  antitheses.  Second,  to  contrast  cer- 
tain words  with  each  other,  or  to  contradistinguish  them.  Third, 
to  supply  an  ellipsis,  and  thereby  complete  to  the  ear  the  gram- 
matical construction.  Fourth,  to  mark  the  syntax,  on  occasions 
when  it  might  be  doubtful  without  the  assistance  of  emphasis. 

Another  view  of  this  subject  might  be  taken,  under  the  divi- 
sions of  the  Parts  of  Speech.  Thus  ;  when  emphasis  is  laid  on 
the  article,  it  contradistinguishes  a  subject  as  definite  or  indefi- 
nite, as  singular  or  plural.  On  a  noun,  it  may  either  point  out 
the  relation  of  attribute,  or  of  genus,  species,  and  individual ;  or 
it  may  raise  one  substantive-thought  above  the  rest  of  the  sen- 
tence, without  the  immediate  suggestions  of  any  special  antithesis. 
On  an  adjective,  the  relations  of  quality  and  degree.  On  pro- 
nouns, its  distmctions  are  relative  to  gender,  number,  case,  and 
person ;   or  it  may  indicate,  as  on  the  article,  the  definite  na- 


RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS.  387 

ture  of  a  subject.  On  the  verb,  it  may  show  the  relationship  of 
states  of  being,  acting,  and  suffering,  of  time,  and  number  ;  or, 
distinguish  without  palpable  antithesis.  On  the  adverb,  the  con- 
tradistinction of  time,  place,  negation,  affirmation,  and  inference. 
On  the  preposition,  the  antithesis  of  motion,  position,  and  cause. 
On  conjunctions,  the  contrast  of  conjunctive  and  disjunctive  re- 
lations, and  of  condition.  On  the  interjection,  emphasis  serves 
only  for  unrelated  distinction,  without  embracing  an  antithesis. 

On  the  whole,  whatever  is  the  meaning  of  any  part  of  speech, 
emphasis  may  not  only  raise  it  into  importance,  and  contradis- 
tinguish it  from  some  other  meaning,  but  may  likewise  supply  an 
ellipsis,  and  point  out  the  syntax. 

It  has  been  said, — every  case  of  emphasis  includes  contrast. 
This  does  not  seem  to  be  true  of  emphatic  interjections  ;  at  least 
the  antithesis  is  not  obvious.  And  with  regard  to  the  cases  in- 
cluded under  the  detail  of  other  Parts  of  speech,  the  contrast,  in 
many  instances,  is  not,  at  the  moment,  a  subject  of  attention, 
even  should  an  antithesis  be  embraced  within  the  thought.  Nor 
does  it  appear  to  be  true  of  the  Ellipsis,  and  the  Emphatic  tie. 

It  is  not  within  the  range  of  my  design,  to  illustrate  all  the 
cases  of  emphasis,  set  forth  in  the  above  survey  of  species,  sug- 
gested by  the  philosophy  of  the  parts  of  speech.  I  here  exem- 
plify the  four  general  heads,  of  the  Purposes  of  emphasis. 

First.  The  distinction  of  one  Avord  above  others,  without  the 
striking  perception  of  antithesis,  is  here  shown. 

But  see !  the  angry  victor  hath  recall'd 
His  ministers  of  vengeance  and  pursuit, 
Back  to  the  gates  of  Heaven. 

The  first  phrase  contains  an  interjective  emphasis ;  but  I  can- 
not conceive  with  what  see,  is  in  contrast.  Surely  Satan,  in 
drawing  the  attention  of  the  eyes  of  Beelzebub,  did  not  mean 
to  signify,  that  he  should  not  otherwise  perceive  the  recall  of 
the  pursuit :  And  to  suppose  see  to  be  in  antithesis  to  his  not 
having  looked  before :  or  to  his  having  here  a  contrasted  inter- 
est with  some  previous  purpose,  is  a  mere  refinement.  The  case 
is  the  same  with  most  interjections,  whether  they  arc  properly 


388  RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS. 

the  simple  tonic  elements,  or  with  greater  latitude,  any  of  the 
several  parts  of  speech. 

Second.  The  marked  antithesis  is  exemplified  in  the  follow- 
ing lines : 

I  yielded  ;  and  from  that  time  see 
How  beauty  is  excell'd  by  man\j  grace, 
And  wisdom,  which  alone  is  truly  fair. 

This  is  the  most  frequent  form  of  emphasis. 

Third.  The  use  of  strong  emphasis,  in  an  elliptical  sentence, 
is  remarkable  in  the  following  instance,  from  the  first  book  of 
Milton  : 

Into  lohat  pit  thou  seest ! 
From  ^chat  hight  fall'n !  so  much  the  stronger  prov'd 
He  with  his  thuLder. 

Taking  these  lines  as  a  complete  construction,  they  are  un- 
grammatical,  and  unintelligible.  To  one  acquainted  with  the 
context,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  suggest  that  the  Poet  meant 
to  say, —  see  to  what  a  dreadful  pit  we  are  doomed,  consider 
from  what  an  immeasurable  hight  we  have  been  hurled,  and 
learn  thereby  the  degree  of  his  superior  strength.  Or  thus, — 
as  far  as  the  horrors  and  the  depth  of  this  pit  are  removed  from 
the  bliss  and  hight  of  heaven,  so  far  has  the  thunder  of  the 
Almighty  surpassed  the  strength  of  our  arms.  Now,  this  full 
meaning  can  be  clearly  brought  out  from  the  elliptical  phrase- 
ology of  the  Poet,  only  by  skillful  emphatic  intonation.  If  the 
word  what,  in  its  two  places,  limited  as  it  is  in  quantity,  be  given 
with  an  emphasis  of  the  downward  octave,  for  it  will  not  bear 
its  direct  wave,  forcibly  aspirated,  and  with  a  loud  concrete ; 
and  if  the  succeeding  words  Avithin  the  notes  of  admiration,  be 
also  intonated  with  downward  vanishes,  but  with  smaller  inter- 
vals, it  will  vocally  denote  an  astonishment  at  the  precipitation 
and  at  the  doom,  not  fully  conveyed  by  the  words  alone.  And 
further,  if  a  cadence  and  a  pause  be  made  at  falVn,  and  if  so 
much  be  strongly  emphatic,  in  any  form  that  seems  preferable ; 
the  comparison  of  the  degree  of  strength  in  the  thunder,  to 
the  measure  of  the  hight,  will  be  obvious ;  and  the  whole  sense 


RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS.  389 

and  sentiment  will  come  upon  the  ear,  with  that  laconic  elo- 
quence, in  which  the  admirers  of  the  Poet  will  be  ready  to 
believe,  it  was  thought  and  condensed  in  his  perfecting  imagi- 
nation. 

Fourth.  When  the  structure  of  a  sentence  is  so  much 
involved,  as  to  produce  a  momentary  hesitation  in  an  audience, 
about  its  concord  or  government,  the  syntax  may  be  rendered 
perspicuous  by  means  of  emphasis,  as  in  this  example : 

He  stood,  and  call'd 
His  legions,  Angel  forms,  who  lay  entranc'd 
Thick  a,s  Autumnal  leaves  that  strow  the  brooks 
In  Vallombrosa,  -where  the  Etrurian  shades, 
High  over-arch'd,  imbower;  or  scattered  sedge 
Afloat,  when  with  fierce  winds  Orion  arm'd 
Hath  vexed  the  Red-sea  coast. 

If  this  passage  stood  thus,  Thick  as  autumnal  leaves,  in 
Vallombrosa^  or  scattered  sedge  afloat,  there  could  be  no  hesi- 
tation about  the  construction.  But  the  chain  of  parenthetic 
specifications  between  leaves,  and  or,  together  with  the  pic- 
turesque associations,  and  the  beauty  of  the  phraseology,  makes 
us  for  a  moment  lose  sight  of  that  intended  transition  to  another 
subject  of  illustration,  which  should  be  immediate  and  perspicu- 
ous. For  the  substitutive  sense  of  the  conjunction  or,  is  not  so 
apparent,  that  the  phrase  scattered  sedge,  might  not,  at  the 
moment,  be  prospectively  taken  as  a  nominative  in  some  new 
course  of  the  description.  But  if  the  clause  thick  as  autumnal 
leaves,  be  emphatically  raised  into  memorable  notice ;  and  the 
succeeding  words,  extending  to  the  semicolon,  be  hurried,  yet 
becomingly,  and  with  a  somewhat  monotonous  course  of  melody, 
a  subsequent  emphasis  on  scattered  sedge  afloat,  will  at  once 
refer  the  ear  back  to  the  last  similar  distinction  of  the  voice,  on 
autumnal  leaves,  and  thus  indicate,  that  the  Angel  forms  lay 
likewise  as  thick  as  the  scattered  sedge  afloat. 

This  means  for  denoting  the  syntax  and  the  sense,  for  so  it  is, 
was  called,  in  the  section  on  Grouping,  the  Emphatic  tie :  and 
certainly  in  the  present  case,  it  has  no  other  object  than  to  join 
these  dissevered  thoughts ;  since  in  a  more  natural  and  per- 


390  EECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS. 

spicuous  arrangement,  there  would  be  no  call  for  the  emphatic 
distinction. 


Having  thus  enumerated  the  various  modes  of  time,  quality, 
force,  abruptness,  and  intonation,  by  which  certain  words  or 
syllables  are  brought  conspicuously  before  the  ear,  the  reader  is 
prepared  to  receive  the  term  emphasis,  with  a  wider  definition 
than  is  usually  given  of  it. 

Emphasis  is  a  generic  term  for  the  extraordinary  impressive- 
ness  of  the  sense  or  sentiment  of  words ;  the  species  of  impression 
being  derived  from  the  varied  modes  of  the  voice. 

From  this  view  it  appears,  that  Emphasis,  and  what  we  have 
called  Expression,  may  be  considered  in  most  cases,  as  con- 
vertible generic  terms ;  since  emphatic  words  differ  from  such  as 
are  unemphatic,  through  the  use  of  those  impressive  vocal 
agencies  that  constitute  the  proper  expression  of  speech. 

The  preceding  analysis  will  enable  us  to  display  the  whole 
compass  of  the  art  of  reading,  with  some  amplitude  of  plan  and 
accuracy  of  delineation.  Words  may  be  considered  under  three 
aspects :  as  representative  of  simple  thought ;  as  indicative  of 
an  enforcing  of  thought ;  and  as  expressive  of  passion.  The 
progress  of  the  voice  in  speaking,  is  called  melody.  The  course 
of  melody  under  the  direction  of  simple  thought,  is  through  the 
interval  of  a  tone  in  the  radical  change,  with  a  concrete  rise  of 
a  tone  from  each  of  those  radicals.  But  the  portions  of  dis- 
course representing  simple  thought,  are  limited :  thoughts  are  to 
be  enforced,  and  passions  to  be  expressed.  The  tenor  of  the 
simple  diatonic  melody  is  therefore  often  interrupted,  by  an 
occurrence  of  wider  intervals  of  the  scale,  both  in  the  concrete 
and  discrete  forms.  It  was  shown,  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
section,  that  besides  the  seven  forms  of  radical  pitch,  called  the 
phrases  of  melody,  other  successions  of  wider  intervals  were,  by 
the  requisitions  of  speech,  introduced  into  the  Current :  and 
thus,  on  the  same  principle  which  directed  the  construction  of 
those  phrases,  we  have  the  phrases  of  the  third,  fifth,  and  octave, 
both  in  the  rising,  the  falling,  the  concrete,  and  the  discrete 


RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS.  391 

forms.  Having  learned  how  these  •wider  phrases  are  employed, 
in  the  important  purpose  of  emphasis,  we  may  distinguish  them 
by  an  appropriate  term.  And  since  we  called  those  formed  on 
the  radical  successions  of  the  second,  the  phrases  of  melody  or 
the  Diatonic  Phrases,  let  us  call  those  formed  on  the  radical 
transitions  of  wider  intervals,  the  Emphatic  Phrases,  or  the 
Phrases  of  Emphasis. 

If  the  foregoing  history  of  the  speaking  voice  has  been  suffi- 
ciently clear,  the  reader  may  now  be  able  to  take  a  discriminative 
survey  of  that  system  of  melody  and  expression,  which  has  beeh 
so  long  bearing  its  part  in  the  ways  of  human  thought  and 
passion,  without  a  single  ear  to  measure  the  niceties  of  its 
instrumentality,  or  to  recognize  the  perfection  of  its  purpose : 
and  if  his  mind  is  large  and  liberal  enough  to  let  in  other 
thoughts  than  those  of  profit  and  fame,  he  may  herein  possess 
and  enjoy,  at  least  the  picture  of  a  wise  and  beautiful  system 
of  nature,  if  he  cannot,  ambitiously  offer  it  either  for  gain  or 
applause. 

The  exercise  of  an  attentive  ear,  together  with  a  resolute 
practice,  will  be  necessary  for  the  precise  recognition,  and 
skillful  employment  of  the  forms  of  vocal  expression.  But  a  full 
understanding  of  the  history  and  system  of  speech,  Avithout 
this  practical  facility,  will  enable  us  to  overlook  the  exercises  of 
others,  with  the  decisive  commendation  or  censure  of  an  intelli- 
gent criticism :  to  carry  the  steady  arm  of  principles,  against 
the  self-conflicting  councils,  and  changeful  orders  of  conventional 
authority :  to  hold  out  against  error  with  the  strong  defences  of 
a  cultivated  taste ;  and  to  associate  the  delightful  but  passing 
perceptions  of  the  ear,  with  the  continued  and  busy  pleasures  of 
mental  discrimination. 

When  the  reader  reviews  the  preceding  history,  he  is  requested 
to  bear  in  mind  that  its  purpose  was  to  record  the  phenomena  of 
speech,  without  a  limitation  of  that  purpose,  to  points,  readily 
cognizable  in  ordinary  utterance,  or  practically  important  in 
oratorical  instruction.  As  these  phenomena  were  observed,  so 
in  strictest  accordance,  were  they  set  down  :  for  there  is  in  this 
work,  no  Contribution  to  knowledge,  Avhich  has  not  been  drawn 


392  RECAPITULATING  VIEW  OF  EMPHASIS. 

from  nature,  by  patient  observation  and  experiment,  conducted 
within  the  limits  of  that  little  space,  between  the  Tongue  and  the 
Ear.  Many  parts  of  the  detail  will  at  once  be  recognized  by  the 
competent  critic ;  others  will  be  afterwards  received  into  the 
growing  familiarity  of  his  inquiry ;  while  some  of  the  descrip- 
tions, even  if  admitted,  will  still  be  considered  as  refinements, 
beyond  the  reach  of  perception  and  of  rule.  As  a  physiologist, 
I  have  done  no  more  than  my  duty  in  this  abundant  record, 
however  apparently  useless  some  of  its  minuti^  may  be.  Much 
of  the  accumulated  wealth  of  science  is  not  at  interest ;  but  the 
borrowers  may  one  day  come.  It  is  readily  granted,  that  some 
distinctions  in  this  history,  may  be  at  present  practically  disre- 
garded. Thus  the  several  forms  of  stress  are  described  as 
palpably  differing  functions ;  and  they  are  so,  in  speech :  yet  I 
have  not  ventured  to  insist  on  the  importance  of  the  difference 
in  all  cases.  So  in  describing  the  nature  and  uses  of  the  inter- 
vals of  the  scale,  it  was  not  designed  to  exclude  the  fourth,  sixth 
and  seventh,  or  intervals  even  beyond  the  octave,  from  the 
speaking  voice.  Nor  is  it  to  be  understood  that  some  of  the 
intervals  of  intonation,  may  not  on  occasions,  be  used  as  substi- 
tutes of  each  other,  without  affecting  the  force  or  precision  of 
speech.  I  was  also  far  from  ascribing  particular  expressions  to 
all  the  possible  forms  of  the  wave. 

In  thus  opening  the  way  for  the  change  of  elocution,  from  an 
imitative  Mannerism,  with  its  inherent  defects,  to  a  directive 
Science,  or  rather,  an  Art  Founded  on  Nature,  with  all  its  con- 
stituent usefulness  and  beauty,  it  was  necessary  to  set  forth 
every  function  of  the  voice :  that  the  materials  might  thereby 
be  furnished  towards  the  future  establishment  of  a  system  of 
instruction,  for  those  who  have  the  rare  aim  in  scholarship,  of 
seeking  its  higher  accomplishments,  through  the  abundant  encom- 
passing of  principles,  and  the  condensing  economy  of  systematic 
means.  That  the  investigation  of  this  subject  has  produced 
much  that  will  be  imperceptible  to  the  first  scrutinies  of  the 
general  ear,  must  be  inferred  from  the  past  history  of  human 
improvement.  The  mysterious  subject  of  the  Speaking  Voice, 
has  been  at  all  times  so  despairingly  abandoned,  as  beyond  the 


DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE.  393 

reach  of  analytic  perception,  that  the  supposed  impossibility 
alone,  will  perhaps  raise  a  stronger  opposition  to  the  claims  of 
this  Demonstrative  Essay,  than  all  the  Author  might  despond- 
ingly  have  imagined  against  his  prospects  of  success,  in  under- 
taking this  'forlorn  hope'  of  philosophic  inquiry.  Many  -who 
in  fine  organization  of  ear,  and  a  capability  of  delicate  analysis, 
possess  the  means  for  successful  investigation,  will,  too  probably, 
shrink  from  the  labor  of  experiment;  and  seek  to  justify 
infirmity  of  resolution,  by  defensively  assuming  the  hopeless- 
ness of  trial. 


SECTION  XLVII. 

Of  the  Drift  of  the  Voice. 

He  who  has  the  rare  gratification,  to  hear  a  good  reader,  may 
perceive  that  his  voice  is  not  only  adapted  to  the  varying  senti- 
ments of  individual  words,  but  that  there  is  a  character  in  its 
movement,  continued  through  parts,  or  the  whole  of  his  dis- 
course ;  accommodated  to  its  reigning  spirit ;  identical  during 
the  prevalence  of  that  spirit,  and  changing  with  its  variations. 
Every  one  recognizes  this  difierence  in  manner,  between  a 
facetious  description,  and  a  solemn  invocation  from  the  pulpit ; 
between  the  vehement  stress  of  anger,  and  the  well  known 
whining  of  complaint.  It  is  to  this  continuation  of  the  same 
style,  whatever  may  be  its  sense  or  expression,  that  I  apply  the 
term  Drift  of.  the  voice. 

The  characteristic  of  drift  is  derived  from  the  various  modes 
of  Quality,  Force,  Time,  Abruptness,  and  Pitch.  My  purpose 
here,  is  to  enumerate  its  forms ;  and  to  show  how  far  they  may 
be  continuously  employed  in  speech. 

This  subject  is  not  unnecessarily  specified  by  a  name ;  nor 
26 


w 


394  DRIFT  OF  VHE  VOICE. 

uselessly  offered  to  the  studious  attention  of  the  reader :  for  if 
a  particular  drift  is  required  on  a  portion  of  discourse,  or  on 
the  whole  of  it,  any  interruption  of  its  assumed  and  appropriate 
character,  will  do  equal  violence  to  sentiment,  and  taste.  Thus 
the  introduction  of  a  tone  or  second,  into  the  plaintive  drift  of 
the  chromatic  melody,  would  no  less  offend  against  propriety  of 
speech,  than  the  errors  of  time  in  music,  would  shock  the 
sensibility  of  an  accurate  ear. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  of  drift  being  admitted ;  let 
us  consider,  Upon  what  it  is  founded ;  and  How  many  different 
forms  it  may  employ. 

Drift  is  founded  on  the  various  species  of  the  five  generic 
modes  of  speech.  These  species  have  been  described,  as  regards 
their  individual  character ;  their  expressive  meaning ;  and  their 
occasional  purpose  of  emphasis.  In  the  present  section,  we 
consider  the  manner  of  applying  them  ;  and  their  peculiar  effect, 
when  continued  through  a  part  or  the  whole  of  the  current 
melody. 

The  question, —  How  many  different  styles  the  drift  may 
assume,  is  to  be  answered,  by  ascertaining  which  of  the  syllabic 
uses  of  quality,  force,  time,  and  pitch,  will  bear  continued 
repetition ;  for  some  cannot  be  so  repeated,  without  producing 
a  disagreeable  monotony.  In  general,  it  may  be  said,  that  most 
of  the  forms  of  time,  stress,  and  intonation,  are  as  occasion 
requires,  applicable  in  continuation,  without  violating  propriety 
or  taste.  Again,  some  can  be  employed  only  on  a  few,  or  on 
solitary  syllables,  and  therefore  are  not  allowable  as  a  drift  in 
discourse. 

Although  the  character  of  a  drift  may  pervade  the  whole 
sentence,  yet  the  peculiar  form  of  voice  which  produces  it,  is 
in  some  cases  applied  only  to  certain  syllables.  Thus,  unac- 
cented syllables  cannot  bear  the  prolonged  time,  required  for 
the  drift  of  dignity ;  still  the  dignity  is  spread  over  the  whole 
sentence,  by  its  long  quantities  alone.  We  here  enumerate 
the  various  styles  of  drift. 

The  Drift  of  the  second,  or  the  Diatonic  Drift.  The  dia- 
tonic melody  is  used  for  simple  narrative  and  description ;  and 


1 


DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE.  395 

having  no  remarkable  expression,  may  be  so  continued  as  to 
form  one  of  the  most  common  styles  of  drift.  The  employment 
of  expressive  intervals,  when  not  required,  in  the  plain  diatonic 
melody,  violates  one  of  the  leading  laws  of  speech.  Let  a 
gazette  advertisement  be  read  with  the  solemn  drift  of  a  long 
quantity,  or  in  the  plaintive  style  of  the  semitone ;  and  all,  at 
least  of  our  New  school  of  Criticism,  will  acknowledge  the  im- 
proper application  of  time  and  intonation. 

In  the  usual  course  of  the  diatonic  melody,  perhaps  the 
upward  concretes  predominate :  the  downward  vanish  of  the 
second,  being  occasionally  introduced  for  variety ;  but  when 
required  by  the  gravity  of  the  subject,  this  downward  second 
may  without  monotony,  constitute  a  drift. 

The  Drift  of  the  Semitone.  Enough  was  said  formerly  on 
the  subject  of  the  chromatic  melody ;  it  exemplifies  the  present 
head.  This  style  is  spread  throughout  discourse  of  a  plaintive, 
tender,  and  supplicating  character.  It  was  proved  in  its  proper 
place,  that  every  interval  is  practicable  on  every  kind  of  quan- 
tity. The  semitone  therefore,  in  its  drift,  is  heard  on  every 
syllable,  however  short ;  and  even  though  unaccented. 

The  Drift  of  the  Dowmvard  Vanish.  It  was  said,  the 
falling  second  is  sometimes  used  as  a  drift.  The  downward 
third  and  even  the  fifth  is  occasionally  heard  in  continuation. 
Their  currents  express  positiveness ;  and  an  earnestness  of 
conviction,  with  resentment,  when  enforced  by  stress.  The  fol- 
lowing indignant  argument  from  the  pleading  of  Volumnia,  in 
Coriolanus,  bears  the  downward  fifth  on  all  its  emphatic 
syllables. 

Come  let  us  go : 
This  fellow  had  a  Volcian  to  his  mother; 
His  wife  is  in  Corioli,  and  this  child 
Like  him  by  chance. 

A  continued  use  of  the  downward  intervals,  is  as  we  have 
seen,  a  style  of  drift  in  exclamatory  sentences. 

The  Drift  of  the  Wave  of  the  Second.  This  is  used  in  con- 
tinuation on  long  quantities,  for  occasions  of  solemn,  deliberate, 
and  dignified  speech.     I  do  not  say, —  this  wave  may  not  be 


396  DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE. 

applied  tO'  syllables  of  moderately  protracted  time,  and  even 
rapidly  executed  on  those  we  called  mutable:  but  it  is  on 
long-drawn  or  indefinite  quantities  that  the  effects  ascribed  to 
it  as  a  drift,  become  conspicuous. 

The  Drift  of  the  Wave  of  the  Semitone.  This  is  the  most 
common  form  of  the  semitonic  drift ;  since  the  sentiments  asso- 
ciated with  the  chromatic  melody,  generally  call  for  slow  time 
and  long  quantities.  Upon  the  subject  of  this,  and  the  preced- 
ing head,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  both  the  direct  and  inverted 
form  of  these  waves  are  used  interchangeably,  in  their  respective 
melodies.  The  rise  and  fall  of  the  simple  second,  having  no 
peculiar  expression,  the  difference,  if  any,  in  the  effect  of  the 
respective  terminating  interval  of  its  direct  and  inverted  wave, 
is  to  be  disregarded.  Whereas,  the  strong  expression  of  the 
wider  simple  intervals,  gives  a  remarkable  difference  to  the 
respective  termination  of  their  direct  and  inverted  waves. 

The  Drift  of  Quantity.  Attractive  styles  of  speech  are 
formed  on  Time.  In  discourse,  containing  the  sentiments  of 
gaiety,  mirth,  anger,  and  other  similar  emotions,  the  utterance 
is  quick ;  and  this  is  generally  combined  with  the  simple  con- 
crete of  the  second,  together  with  a  radical  or  vanishing  stress. 
The  drift  of  long  quantity,  on  the  wave,  is  employed  in  all 
solemn,  plaintive,  and  dignified  speech. 

We  might  make  a  threefold  division  of  the  temporal  Drift, 
into  that  of  quick,  slow,  and  median  time. 

The  Drift  of  Force.  Loudness  and  Softness,  or  with  pre- 
ferable co-relative  terms,  the  Forte  and  the  Piano,  when 
respectively  heard  in  continuation,  do  so  impress  the  ear  with 
their  distinct  peculiarities,  as  to  constitute  styles  of  utterance ; 
and  the  failure  to  fulfill  the  demands  of  sentiment  on  either  of 
these  points,  must  be  included  among  the  faults  of  speech.  Who 
will  deny, —  there  are  occasions,  when  the  drift  of  comparative 
piano  would  be  ridiculous  :  and  others  again,  when  that  of  forte 
would  be  disgusting  bombast. 

The  Drift  of  the  Loud  Concrete.  This  is  only  reading  or 
speaking  with  more  than  usual  force.  It  may  therefore  con- 
stitute a  drift :  and  may  be  referred  to  the  preceding  head. 


DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE.  397- 

The  Drift  of  tJie  Median  Stress.  This  is  necessarily  asso- 
ciated -witJi  long  quantity ;  and  generally  with  that  of  the  wave 
of  the  second,  and  the  semitone :  for  their  protracted  time  is 
always  the  sign  of  that  dignity,  which  for  its  most  graceful 
display,  requires  the  median  swell. 

These  nine  styles  of  drift  do,  by  their  continuation,  impress 
a  peculiar  characteristic  on  extended  portions  of  discourse. 

Of  the  other  expressive  uses  of  the  voice,  none  are  allowable  in 
that  continuation  which,  according  to  our  previous  account  of 
drift,  would  constitute  a  current  style.  And  yet  the  application 
of  some  of  them,  extends  so  much  beyond  the  limit  of  emphasis, 
that  they  deserve  a  place  next  in  order  to  the  full,  or  Thorough 
drifts.  If  the  reader  is  disposed  to  give  them  a  name,  founded 
on  their  nature,  they  might  be  called  Partial  drifts :  thus  we 
have. 

The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Tremor.  The  tremulous  move- 
ment is  proper  only  on  short  and  occasional  passages,  passages 
of  wjiat  might  be  called  syllabic  crying.  But  the  tremulous 
expression,  whether  in  the  plaintiveness  of  the  semitone,  or 
in  the  gaiety  and  exultation  of  the  second  and  wider  intervals,  is 
too  remarkable  to  be  kept  up  through  a  long  line  of  discourse. 
For  though  drift  is  by  its  nature,  a  kind  of  monotony,  it  is  only 
disagreeable  when  improperly  applied,  or  unduly  continued. 

The  Partial  Drift  of  Aspiration.  Sentiments  requiring 
aspiration,  are  like  those  of  the  preceding  head,  generally 
limited  to  temporary  portions  of  melody.  When  so  applied,  the 
character  of  utterance  justly  entitles  it  to  the  name  of  drift. 

The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Criittural  Vibration.  The  scorn- 
ful feeling  of  this  form  of  expression  is  sometimes  continued 
for  more  than  the  time  and  the  solitary  occasions  of  emphasis : 
and  thus  produces  a  partial  drift. 

The  Partial  Drift  of  Interrogation.  The  rising  third,  fifth, 
and  octave  are  the  interrogative  intervals.  Their  partial  use  in 
interrogation,  exceeds  in  so  slight  a  degree,  the  extent  of  their 
application  as  emphasis,  that  in  this  case,  they  are  scarcely 
entitled  to  the  name  of  drift.  But  in  declarative  questions, 
and  in  other  questions  requiring  the  thorough  intonation,  the 


398  DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE. 

predominance  of  these  impressive  intervals,  gives  that  pecu- 
liar character  which  the  common  ear  at  once  percpives  and 
comprehends.  Still,  as  questions  are  hut  portions  of  discourse, 
and  as  these  wider  intervals  are  never  used  in  continuation  for 
any  other  purpose,  this  form  of  drift  must  be  coiisidered  as 
partial. 

The  Partial  Drift  of  the  Phrases  of  Melody.  The  Mono- 
tone, and  the  Alternate  phrase  are  sometimes  severally  used  in 
contirnuation,  to  an  extent,  that  might  constitute  a  partial  drift. 
In  the  twenty-ninth  section,  a  peculiar  character  is  respectively 
ascribed  to  these  two   phrases,   when  continuously  employed. 

It  may  be  a  question, — how  far  Quality  of  voice,  on  a  part 
or  the  whole  of  discourse,  might  constitute  a  drift.  The  fulness 
of  the  orotund  may  impart  to  utterance  a  character  of  dignity, 
at  once  distinguishable  from  the  meager  huskiness  and  forceless 
efforts  of  uncultivated  speech. 

These  are  the  several  drifts,  that  may  be  respectively  con- 
tinued throughout  discourse ;  or  restricted  to  the  partial  limits 
of  a  sentence  or  a  clause. 

Some  of  the  constituents  of  vocal  expression,  will  not  bear 
repetition  ;  and  are  thus  not  admissible  among  the  styles  of  drift. 

It  was  said,  interrogative  sentences  of  the  Thorough  kind 
might  be  regarded  as  carrying  a  partial  drift  of  the  third,  fifth, 
or  octave.  But  with  the  exception  of  this  case,  these  wider 
intervals  are  never,  in  correct  speech,  used  in  continuation. 
The  minor  third,  though  a  plaintive  interval  in  crying  and  song, 
is  not  admissible  as  a  drift ;  nature,  for  some  wise  purpose, 
Iiaving  excluded  this  sign  from  what  she  intended  to  be  agreeable 
and  effective  speech.  Its  peculiarity  will  be  shown  when  we 
treat  of  the  faults  of  speakers. 

As  a  current  style,  of  these  wider  intervals,  is  forbidden  in 
melody,  so  their  combination  into  the  wider  waves,  cannot  be 
extended  beyond  the  limited  place  of  emphasis.  There  is 
however  a  drift  of  this  kind  observable  as  a  fault  in  readers : 
nay,  some,  in  their  formal  efforts,  can  command  no  other  style 
of  intonation.  But  the  least  cultivation  of  ear  rejects  the 
undue  repetition  of  these  florid  constituents  of  speech. 


DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE.  399 

Of  the  stresses,  none  except  the  Median  and  the  Loud  concrete 
are  employed  as  a  drift.  The  Radical  might  indeed  be  made 
the  drift,  in  a  language,  of  only  immutable  emphatic  sylla- 
bles ;  and  some  bad  speakers  do  use  this  stress,  as  if  their 
own  had  been  so  constructed :  but  it  is  too  forcible  to  bear 
continued  repetition,  without  offending  the  ear.  The  Vanishing 
and  the  Compound,  are  too  peculiar,  as  well  as  too  violent,  to 
form  a  drift.  It  need  scarcely  be  said,  that  the  Emphatic  vocule 
cannot  form  one.  As  to  the  Thorough  Stress,  whenever  it  shall 
be  introduced  generally,  as  a  drift  into  speech,  music,  sense, 
soul,  every  oratorical  grace,  and  the  common  social  and  way- 
side decencies  of  the  tongue,  will  long  before  have  left  it. 

There  is  a  prominent  feature  in  the  art  of  reading,  nearly 
related  to  the  subject  of  this  section.  I  mean  that  notable 
change  of  voice,  required  in  the  transition,  from  one  paragraph 
or  division  of  discourse  to  another.  It  may  be  supposed,  this 
point  is  already  included  in  the  foregoing  history  of  drift. 
Should  any  strong  or  peculiar  sentiment  be  contained  in  the  new 
paragraph,  it  will  indeed  be  distinguished,  by  its  proper  expres- 
sion. But  without  seeing  the  page,  we  sometimes  know  that  a 
reader  is  passing  to  a  new  subject,  even  when  there  is  no 
striking  alteration  of  expression :  and  when  the  plain  diatonic 
melody  continues,  after  the  transition. 

The  recognition  in  this  case,  is  produced  by  several  means. 
First.  By  the  period  preceding  the  change,  being  made  with 
that  most  complete  close,  the  prepared  cadence.  This  indicates 
the  termination  of  the  preceding  subject,  and  thereby  implies 
the  introduction  of  a  new  one.  Second.  By  a  pause,  longer 
than  that  between  sentences  nearly  related  to  each  other. 
Third.  By  the  succeeding  sentence  or  paragraph  beginning  at  a 
pitch  above  or  below  the  line  of  the  previous  current.  Fourth 
By  a  striking  effect  from  the  phrases  of  melody,  applied  to  the 
outset  of  a  new  topic. 

These  vocal  indications  make  the  change  of  subject  obvious, 
when  a  peculiar  construction  of  the  sentence  immediately  follow- 
ing the  period,  dcfei'S  the  development  of  its  sense,  and  renders 
it  impossible*  to  ascertain,  by  the  few  first  words,  whether  the 


n 


400  DRIFT  OF  THE  VOICE. 

proximate  sentences  are  immediately  or  remotely  related  to 
each  other. 

From  a  review  of  this  subject,  it  appears,  that  many  of  the 
forms  of  expression  may  be  in  continual  use  as  a  drift,  without 
producing  monotony ;  that  some  admit  of  repetition,  only  to  a 
certain  extent ;  while  others  do  not  bear  application  beyond  the 
solitary  place  of  emphasis.  It  appears,  too,  by  the  beautiful 
fitness,  and  consistency  of  nature,  that  those,  inadmissible  as  a 
drift,  have  a  very  striking  character,  and  are  reserved  for  the 
occasional  purposes  of  emphatic  distinction.  Thus  the  down- 
ward eighth,  with  its  impressive  intonation,  is  never  used  in  drift. 
The  case  is  similar  with  the  wider  forms  of  the  wave ;  and  the 
rising  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  when  not  employed  for  interro- 
gation. 

After  what  has  been  said,  a  little  attention  will  show  that 
several  styles  may  exist  at  once,  in  the  same  melody.  Thus  the 
drifts  of  the  second,  of  short  time,  of  the  radical  or  the  vanish- 
ing stress,  and  of  loudness,  may  be  united.  In  like  manner  we 
may  have  a  combination  of  the  drifts  of  the  wave  of  the  second, 
of  long  quantity,  of  the  median  stress,  of  the  piano  or  the  forte. 
In  short,  the  reader  can  ascertain  which  of  them  may  be 
associated,  by  knowing  the  compatible  characteristics  of  the 
several  means  of  expression ;  for  they  are  united  in  the  practice 
of  the  voice,  in  every  possible  way. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  extracts  from  authors,  to  illustrate 
the  various  kinds  of  drift.  After  all  that  has  been  said  of  the 
modes  of  the  voice,  and  their  forms,  together  with  the  foregoing 
history  of  their  application  in  a  continued  style  of  speech,  fur- 
ther explanation  would  be  superfluous.  For  I  am  not  less 
solicitous  to  limit  the  pages  of  this  essay,  than  to  extend  the 
measure  of  its  instruction. 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  401 

SECTION  XLVIII. 

Of  the  Vocal  Signs  of  the  Passions. 

I  HAVE  already  given  a  physiological  description  of  the  func- 
tion of  the  voice,  and  have  pointed  out  their  expressive  powers, 
as  far  as  they  denote  simple  thought,  sentiment,  feeling,  emo- 
tions, or  any  other  named  condition  of  the  mind.  This  should 
satisfy  the  reader ;  since  it  describes,  in  its  own  general  way,  all 
that  to  me,  at  least,  is  audible  and  capable  of  measurement. 
But  former  systems  of  elocution  having  embraced  an  inquiry, 
however  fruitless,  on  the  representation  of  the  passions  in  Speech ; 
such  a  view,  though  superfluous  after  what  has  been  said,  may 
perhaps  be  demanded  here. 

There  is  a  hypocritical  compliment,  always  paid  to  originality; 
the  contradictory  spirit  of  which  is,  that  mankind  are  eager  to 
receive  what  is  new,  provided  it  is  told  in  the  old  way.  I  can 
imagine,  a  few  of  my  readers,  even  after  all  that  has  been  here 
written  on  the  forms  of  expression,  and  the  sentiments  repre- 
sented by  them,  may, —  through  the  unthinking  influence  of  habit, 
and  by  never  looking  at  things,  as  they  are, —  still  ask  for  a  sepa- 
rate chapter  on  this  subject.  Having  therefore  fulfilled  a 
purpose  of  this  essay,  by  describing,  under  their  respective 
sections,  both  the  nature,  and  the  peculiar  eff'ect  of  the  vocal 
signs  of  the  passions ;  I  am  now  going  to  satisfy  an  expectation, 
and  at  the  same  time  give  a  varied  view  of  expression,  by  a 
formal  detail  under  the  word. 

I  had  occasion,  in  the  introduction,  to  notice  the  limited  de- 
gree of  our  knowledge,  in  some  of  the  scholastic  departments 
of  Elocution :  and  having,  from  the  first,  resigned  myself  wholly 
to  the  authority  of  observation,  have  endeavored  to  adhere  to  an 
early  resolution, —  to  avoid  both  controversy,  and  quotation: 
since  even  within  the  limited  pretensions  of  these  departments, 
there  is  much  that  is  unintelligible,  and  more  that  is  erroneous. 
We  are  now  about  to  leave,  for  a  moment,  the  definite  and 


402  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

luminous  prototype  of  nature,  to  contrast   her  lights,  with  the 
mysterious  shacks  of  the  opinions  of  men. 

No  author,  as  it  appears,  has  paid  more  attention  to  the  sub- 
ject of  Inflection,  or  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  voice,  particularly 
in  its  practical  use,  than  Mr.  Walker.  Indefinite  as  he  is  on 
this  point,  he  far  exceeds  in  precision  and  useful  rule,  all  that  is 
said  by  Aristotle,  Cicero,  Dionysius,  Quinctilian,  and  the  Old 
Musicians.  It  is  true,  Mr.  "Walker  owes  his  superficial  analysis 
to  them :  but  in  his  account  of  the  purposes  of  Inflection,  if 
not  in  the  knowledge  of  its  nature,  he  fairly  Hreads  upon  that 
Greek  and  Roman  glory,'  which  national  vanity  first  proclaimed, 
and  the  subsequent  credulity  of  European  scholarship  was  simple 
enough  to  magnify  and  repeat. 

But  let  us  hear  what  Mr.  Walker  says  of  the  vocal  representa- 
tion of  the  passions. 

'It  now  remains,'  observes  this  author,*  'to  say  something  of 
the  passions  and  emotions  of  the  speaker.  These  are  entirely, 
independent  on  the  modulation  of  the  voice,  though  often  con- 
founded with  it :  for  modulation  relates  only  to  speaking  loudly 
or  softly,  in  a  high  or  in  a  low  key,  while  the  tones  of  the 
passions  or  emotions  mean  only  that  quality  of  sound  that 
indicates  the  feelings  of  the  speaker  without  reference  to  the 
pitch,  or  loudness  of  the  voice.' 

Again  in  the  hundred  and  sixty-sixth  page. 

'  The  truth  is,  the  expression  of  passion  or  emotion  consists 
in  giving  a  distinct  and  specific  quality  to  the  sounds  we  use, 
rather  than  in  increasing  or  diminishing  their  quantity,  or  in 
giving  this  quantity  any  local  direction.' 

And  again  in  another  work.f 

'  As  to  the  tones  of  the  passions  which  are  so  many  and  so 
vai'ious,  these  in  the  opinion  of  one  of  the  best  judges  in  the 
kingdom,  are  qualities  of  sound  occasioned  by  certain  vibrations 
of  the  organs  of  speech,  independent  on  hiyh,  low,  loud,  soft, 
quick,  slo IV,  forcible  or  feeble.' 

*  Elements  of  Elocution,  page  308,  Am.  Ed. 

■j-  Observations  on  Greek  and  Latin  quantity,  appended  to  Walker's  Key  to 
the  pronunciation  of  ancient  proper  names. 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  403 

It  often  happens  with  modern  aspirants  after  some  of  the  sci- 
ences in  the  schools, —  as  it  did  with  those  who  anciently  under- 
went the  mummery  of  admission  to  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis, — 
to  hear  themselves  addressed  in  an  incomprehensible  language. 
What  instruction,  for  instance,  can  be  gathered  from  this  defi- 
nition, if  indeed  it  deserves  the  name  ?  '  The  tones  of  the 
passions  mean  only  that  quality  of  sound  that  indicates  the 
feelings.'  Here  instead  of  an  explanatory  description  of  a 
thing,  we  are  presented  with  a  truism  in  a  periphrase.  For,  as 
the  terms  '  passions'  and  '  feelings'  must  here  be  synonymous, 
as  well  as  those  of  '  tone'  and  '  quality  of  sound,'  the  proposition 
may  stand  thus :  '  the  tones  of  the  (or  the  tones  which  indicate 
the)  passions,  mean  only  the  tones  which  indicate  the  passions  :' 
or  with  less  waste,  thus ;  '  the  tones  of  the  passions  are  the  tones 
of  the  passions.' 

The  second  extract  however,  seems  to  contain  a  real  distinc- 
tion between  the  subject  and  the  predicate :  because  by  '  quality' 
the  author  may  mean  that  mode  of  the  voice,  specified  in  this 
essay,  by  the  terms  full,  harsh,  slender,  natural,  falsetto,  whisper 
and  orotund ;  for  these  are  the  only  existing  qualities  of  sound, 
besides  those  which  Mr.  Walker  has  excluded  from  his  definition. 
But  if  pitch,  which  is  here  meant  by  'local  direction,'  be  denied 
a  place  among  the  signs  of  passion,  what  shall  we  say  of  the 
comprehensive  class,  including  the  pitch  of  the  semitone ;  the 
rising  intervals  of  interrogation ;  the  downward  vanish  that 
conspicuously  marks  the  various  degrees  of  surprise  ?  And  in 
short,  what  is  to  be  said  of  the  efi'ect  of  the  different  measures 
of  time,  and  the  various  degrees  of  stress,  if  speaking  '  loudly 
or  softly,'  and  '  increasing  or  diminishing  the  quantity'  of  sound 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  vocal  expression  of  passion  ? 

But  the  real  motive  of  Mr.  Walker,  in  excluding  intonation, 
and  stress,  and  time,  from  among  the  signs  of  the  passions,  and 
of  his  attempts  to  assign  the  expression  of  speech  to  a  certain 
unexplained  cause  called  '  quality,'  is  clearly  manifested  in  the 
last  quotation ;  for  here,  this  opinion,  on  the  physical  agency  of 
his  term  quality,  for  it  is  no  more  than  a  word,  is  ascribed  to 
'  one  of  the  best  judges  in  the  kingdom.'     After  all  then,  this 


404  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

confused  notion  concerning  the  passions  was  adopted  upon 
authority,  by  Mr.  Walker :  and  this  confession  of  his  faith  in 
others,  certainly  did  not  accord  with  his  repeated  claims  to 
originality  of  observation.  An  original  observer  holding  himself 
responsible  for  his  report,  cross-questions  the  testimony  of  his 
senses :  but  the  borrower  of  opinions  is  less  scrupulous,  since  he, 
himself,  never  designs  to  stand  security  against  the  folly  or 
mischief  of  his  promulgations. 

What  has  been  recorded  in  our  previous  history,  may  induce 
the  reader  to  smile  at  the  above  quotations :  and  enable  him  to 
perceive,  that  the  vocal  signs  of  the  passions  are  no  more  than 
the  every-day  audible  sounds  of  the  manifest  Modes  and  Forms 
of  Quality,  Time,  Force^  Abruptness,  and  Pitch ;  and  that  the 
greater  part  of  these  signs  are  derived  from  those  very  causes, 
which  are  declared  by  Mr.  Walker,  to  be  unoperative  in  impas- 
sioned utterance.  With  regard  to  the  '  specific  quality'  here 
assumed  as  the  vocal  material  of  expression,  it  is  not  allowable 
to  suppose,  the  mode  of  voice  called  in  this  essay.  Quality, 
or  Kind,  is  meant  by  Mr.  Walker's  term ;  since  his  account  of 
quality  is  complicated  with  an  attempt  to  derive  its  proximate 
cause,  from  some  unintelligible  system  of  '  vibrations.' 

Let  the  whole  pass  as  an  instance  of  that  unnatural  paternity 
in  instruction,  which  when  asked  for  bread,  dispenses  nothing 
but  a  stone.  And  at  the  same  time  let  it  justify  any  apparently 
unbecoming  expressions  that  may  have  slipped  from  my  pen, 
when  unavoidably  brought  into  contact  with  those  grosser  errors 
of  indolence  or  authority,  which  are  almost  unpardonable. 

In  reconsidering  the  subject  of  expression,  under  another  view, 
it  is  not  my  intention  to  go  into  a  dissertation  on  the  nature  of 
the  passions,  or  to  contend  with  authors  about  the  scheme  of 
their  arrangement.  I  shall  describe  them  with  reference  only 
to  the  purpose  of  the  present  section,  without  designing  to  re- 
gard their  other  relationships. 

The  human  mind  is  the  place  of  representation  of  all  the 
existences  and  actions  of  nature,  within  the  scope  of  the  senses. 
These  representatives  are  called  ideas.  These  ideas  are  the  simple 
passive  pictures  of  things ;  or  they  exist  with  an  activity,  capa- 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  405 

ble  of  so  affecting  the  physical  organs,  as  to  induce  us  to  seek 
the  object  that  produces  them :  or  to  avoid  it.  This  active  or 
vivid  class  of  ideas,  comprehends  the  passions.  The  states  of 
mind  here  described,  exist  then  in  different  forms  and  degrees, 
from  the  simple  idea,  to  the  highest  energy  of  passion :  and 
the  terms  thought,  sentiment,  emotion,  feeling  and  passion  are 
but  the  verbal  signs  of  these  degrees  and  forms.  Nor  does 
there  appear  to  be  any  line  of  classification,  for  separating  the 
mental  conditions  of  thought  and  passion  :  since  simple  thoughts 
without  changing  their  nature,  do  from  interest  or  other  incite- 
ment often  assume  the  degree  and  color  of  a  passion. 

This  being  one  of  the  many  views  to  be  taken  of  ideas,  we 
pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  effects  produced  on  the  physical 
organs  by  those  thoughts  or  feelings,  constituting  their  sensible 
signs  or  expression.  The  signs  are  various,  but  we  are  at 
present  concerned  only  with  those  in  the  voice. 

Some  of  the  states  of  mind,  called  passions,  are  possessed 
by  man,  in  common  with  inferior  animals.  These  have  their 
instinctive  expressions  conspicuously  marked  in  the  voice,  and 
in  various  muscular  actions. 

Again,  other  states  of  mind  are  the  product  of  human  intelli- 
gence, and  the  social  relations.  These  have  no  such  signs,  as 
those  ordained  by  nature  in  her  own  original  creations.  Thus, 
there  are  natural  expressions,  both  in  the  vocal  organs,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  body,  for  pain,  surprise,  and  anger ;  but  none 
of  any  definite  character  for  hope,  contentment,  and  gratitude. 

Here  then  are  two  essentially  different  means  for  expressing 
the  various  states  of  mind :  since  some  of  these  thoughts,  emo- 
tions, passions,  call  them  what  we  will,  are  denoted  by  certain 
forms  of  stress,  time,  quality,  and  pitch, —  nature's  instinctive 
signs, — joined  to  syllabic  utterance;  while  others  can  be  de- 
scribed only  by  a  verbal  or  conventional  language,  which  does  not 
carry  the  natural  vocal-signs  of  expression.  Thus  we  signify 
command  by  the  downward  fifth,  or  octave ;  and  complaint  by 
the  semitone ;  and  the  meaning  of  these  intervals  is  the  same 
in  all  nations.  But  it  is  not  in  our  power,  to  express  the  senti- 
ments of  gratitude,  and  irresolution,  except  we  describe  these 


406  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

sentiments,  by  appointed  and  arbitrary  words,  that  may  vary  in 
every  different  language. 

Let  us  then,  by  terms,  clearly  distinguish  these  two  classes  of 
signs.  Thus,  when  we  communicate  our  thoughts  and  sentiments 
by  Quality,  Time,  Force,  or  Intonation,  and  without  the  use  of 
the  conventional  meaning  of  words ;  we  will  call  it,  the  In- 
stinctive, or  Natural,  or  Vocal  sign  of  expression.  When  we 
describe  or  indicate  our  thoughts,  and  sentiments  by  a  sentence, 
a  phrase,  or  a  word,  without  the  use  of  vocal  signs,  co-expressive 
with  the  words ;  we  will  call  it,  the  Conventional,  or  Artificial, 
or  Verbal  sign  of  expression. 

Although  it  thus  appears  that  we  have  not  an  instinctive 
vocal  sign  for  every  state  of  mind  ;  yet  every  state  of  mind  may 
be  expressed  by  the  conventional  sign ;  for  one  can  verbally 
inform  another,  that  he  is  astonished,  in  the  plain  diatonic 
melody,  and  thus  convey  a  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  that 
sentiment,  as  certainly  as  he  can  by  the  most  striking  use  of  the 
downward  octave,  which  is  its  natural  sign.  When  astonishment 
is  to  be  represented  on  a  word  or  phrase,  which  does  not  describe 
it,  it  is  necessary  to  employ  the  natural  sign  of  this  sentiment. 
We  have  seen  in  the  seventeenth  section,  that  a  question  may 
be  asked  by  a  grammatical  construction  alone,  without  the  aid 
of  intonation.  But  further,  an  interrogatory  can  be  distinctly 
conveyed,  merely  by  the  verbal  statement,  that  a  question  is 
asked. 

One  of  the  consequences  of  there  being  Instinctive  signs  in 
the  voice,  for  the  expression  of  sentiment,  and  Artificial  signs  in 
language,  to  describe  it,  is,  that  one  instinctive  sign  can  with  the 
assistance  of  the  artificial  sign,  represent  two  or  more  sentiments, 
or  their  degrees ;  for  though  the  kind  of  intonation  is  the  same, 
and  therefore  in  itself  cannot  signify  different  species,  or  shades 
of  meaning,  yet  a  specification,  by  the  descriptive  terms,  signi- 
fies the  difference,  under  an  identical  vocal  form.  Suppose  for 
instance,  one  should  use  the  imperative  phrase,  he  gone,  with  a 
forcible  downward  vanish  of  the  octave :  and  again,  with  the 
same  intonation,  should  say  I  am  astonished ;  the  difference 
between  these   two   emotions  of   command   and   astonishment, 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  407 

would  be  distinctly  represented  under  this  identical  intonation, 
by  the  words  in  which  they  are  severally  declared.  Thus  too, 
the  same  semitone  is  used  for  the  ej^prcssion  of  pain,  discontent, 
pity,  grief,  and  contrition :  and  yet  in  all  these  different  cases, 
the  sentiments  are  marked  by  the  conventional  language  on 
which  the  semitone  is  employed.* 

*  The  Verbal  and  the  Vocal  means  of  expression,  are  each  so  essential,  to  the 
purposes  of  speech,  that  it  is  diiBcult  to  determine  "which  is  most  significant  of 
sentiment  and  passion.  The  power  of  giving  a  diflferent  meaning  to  the  same 
Tvord,  by  a  varied  quality,  stress,  time,  or  intonation,  would  imply  that  the  vocal 
or  instinctive  signs,  are  more  effective  than  the  verbal  or  conventional.  But 
ther  circumstances  warrant  a  conclusion,  that  we  are  as  much  indebted  to  the 
descriptive  agency  of  words,  as  to  any  expressive  efficacy  of  the  voice. 

It  will  hereafter  be  shown  in  the  analysis  of  Song,  that  every  function  which 
we  have  ascribed  to  speech,  is  employed  in  its  Elaborate  style  of  execution :  and 
though  it  is  true,  the  semitone  has  a  plaintive  expression,  even  if  sung  without 
words :  still  the  rising  and  falling  concretes  of  the  third,  fifth,  and  octave,  when 
not  set  to  words  which  describe  the  sentiments  of  these  intervals,  are  constantly 
heard  in  what  are  called  songs  of  Agility,  without  producing  the  audible  charac- 
teristics of  interrogation,  positiveness,  or  surprise.  The  various  forms  of  stress 
too,  that  have  their  proper  expression  in  syllabic  utterance,  seem  to  be  almost 
without  meaning  in  the  inarticulate  movements  of  song. 

But  a  still  more  striking  view  of  the  power  of  language,  as  the  means  of 
expression,  when  contrasted  with  the  power  of  intonation,  is  displayed  in  the 
voice  of  brute  animals,  particularly  that  of  birds. 

When  a  familiarity  with  our  history  will  have  given  a  facility  in  discrimina- 
tion, it  will  be  perceived  that  birds  employ  all  the  vocal  signs  of  speech,  without 
suggesting  the  sentiments  of  surprise,  interrogation,  positiveness,  and  scorn, 
together  with  the  repose  of  the  cadence,  which  would  be  eminently  conveyed  by 
those  signs,  joined  with  words  that  describe  these  several  sentiments.  The 
expi'ession  of  plaintiveness  by  the  semitone,  in  the  voice  of  the  dove,  and  of 
pleasure  by  the  tremulous  scale,  in  the  horse  when  snuffing  his  food,  is  indeed 
made  without  a  verbal  sign,  and  yet  is  identical  with  the  display  of  these  feel- 
ings in  the  human  voice.  But  it  must  be  recollected  that  laughter  and  crying, 
the  analogies  to  these  animal  expressions,  are  in  speech,  generally  inarticulate, 
and  are  thus  to  be  considered  as  merely  animal  signs,  in  the  human  voice. 

It  is  then  the  union  of  an  arbitrary  Verbal  designation  of  a  sentiment  with 
its  natural  or  Vocal  sign,  that  constitutes  the  true  and  essential  means  of  expres- 
sion in  speech. 

I  must  here  beg  the  reader  to  excuse  a  momentary  digression  from  our  sub- 
ject. In  the  course  of  this  essay  many  analogies  might  have  been  shown  between 
the  human  voice,  and  that  of  inferior  animals :  but  I  designed  to  avoid  mingling 
these  two  subjects  of  natural  history. 


408  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

We  have  learned  that  the  means  of  expression  are  always 
applied  in  combination.     There  must  be  at  least  two  conjoined, 

Speech  is  but  an  aggregate  of  the  vocal  and  articulative  functions,  dispersedly 
exercised,  by  all  animals :  for  there  is  scarcely  a  form  of  quality,  time,  intona- 
tion, force,  abruptness,  and  even  of  articulation,  which  is  not  common  to  man, 
and  in  severalty  to  the  brute.  Man  employs  more  of  these  signs  than  any  one 
species  of  animal,  but  perhaps  less  than  all :  the  principal  difference  consisting 
in  his  power  over  the  structure  and  chain  of  the  literal,  and  syllabic  function. 

Upon  the  ground  of  this  identity,  and  with  the  assistance  of  an  exact  mea- 
surement, and  definite  nomenclature  of  the  human  voice,  afforded  by  this  essay, 
—  Mliat  is  there  to  jjrevcnt  the  voices  of  animals  being  taken  into  vieio,  in  the  sys- 
tematic arrangement  of  Zoology  ? 

Naturalists  have  sometimes  attempted  this  in  a  rude  way,  by  a  reference  to 
alphabetic  sounds,  and  to  the  modes  of  time  and  stress  in  words  and  phrases. 
When  boys  without  the  least  attention  to  vocal  Quality  in  the  cases,  find  a  resem- 
blance in  the  whistle  of  the  American  partridge,  to  the  words  'bob  white;'  and 
think  they  pronounce  the  short  song  of  the  'whip-poor-will;'  in  its  name,  the 
similarity  lies  in  the  stress  and  the  time  of  utterance :  for  the  whistle  and  the 
song,  as  well  as  many  mechanical  noises,  resemble,  at  the  whim  of  the  listener, 
any  phrase  with  an  equal  number  of  syllable-like  impulses,  and  the  same  condi- 
tion of  quantity  and  accent. 

Birds  in  the  endowment  of  voice,  have  a  single  Chirp ;  a  Phrase  of  two 
or  more  notes ;  and  a  continued  song,  which  may  be  distinctively  called  their 
Melody.  Some  birds  have  only  the  chirp  ;  others,  the  chirp  and  phrase ;  and  a 
few,  the  chirp,  phrase,  and  melody.  Now  there  is  scarcely  a  person  of  culti- 
vated ear,  with  the  light  of  classification  and  description  contained  in  this 
essay,  who  would  have  much  difficulty  in  discovering,  whether  the  chirp  of  a 
bird  is  in  the  concrete  or  the  radical  pitch  of  a  semitone,  second,  or  other  inter- 
val ;  of  how  many  movements  the  phrase  consists ;  what  are  their  places  of 
pitch  ;  and  what,  the  kind  and  order  of  phrases,  in  the  successions  of  melody. 
As  far  as  observation  extends,  we  know  that  the  voice  of  birds  is  unchangeable  in 
the  species:  it  is  therefore  as  well  entitled  to  nomenclature,  provided  it  can  be 
assigned  definitely,  as  the  feathers,  beak,  and  claws.  If  language  had  never 
furnished  discriminative  names  for  color  and  form,  even  these  characteristics, 
like  those  of  the  voice,  would  never  have  been  known  in  the  descriptions  of 
ornithology. 

Without  extending  our  observation  to  the  whole  range  of  animals,  within 
which  we  might  severally  find  all  the  varieties  of  the  human  voice,  even  to  the 
protracted  note  of  song  in  the  frog ;  I  here  give  an  outline  of  the  vocal  func- 
tions of  the  Mocking-bird,  as  illustrative  of  the  powers  which  generally  belong 
to  its  class. 

The  Mocking-bird  has  every  variety  and  degree  in  Quality,  from  the  delicate 
chirp  of  the  sparrow,  and  harsh  scream  of  the  jay,  to  the  guttural  bass  of  the 
clucking  of  the  hen.  He  uses  every  form  of  Time,  from  a  mere  point  of  sound, 
to  the  quantity  of  our  most  passionate  interjections.     He  has  a  perfect  command 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  TASSIONS.  499 

and  there  may  be  more.  Thus  the  different  forms  of  stress  are 
necessarily  applied  to  some  interval  of  pitch :  it  is  the  same 

over  all  the  intervals  of  the  scale,  both  ascending  and  descending,  and  in  the 
discrete  as  well  as  the  concrete  pitch.  His  simple  concrete  exhibits  the  most 
beautiful  structure  of  the  radical  and  vanish.  He  performs  the  -wave  in  its 
equal  and  unequal,  its  direct  and  inverted  forms,  through  all  intervals ;  but  I 
cannot  say,  he  uses  its  double  movement.  He  exhibits  all  the  forms  of  Stress  on 
the  concrete.  Its  compound  species,  constituting  the  proper  vocal  shake,  he 
has  in  great  perfection.  It  is  the  diatonic  shake,  the  semitonic  not  beino-  found 
in  his  song,  nor,  as  far  as  I  knovr,  in  that  of  any  other  bird.  He  makes  great 
use  of  the  tremor,  both  on  a  continued  line  of  pitch,  and  in  every  diverse  move- 
ment through  the  scale.  His  tremor  has  not  the  chromatic  character,  as  far  as 
I  recollect  it ;  for  my  observation  has  been  transient,  and  not  with  a  view  to  the 
present  record.  Some  other  birds  have  a  tremor  of  a  plaintive  expression. 
All  this  comprehensive  exercise  of  his  throat,  has  variously  the  form  of  Chirp, 
rhrase,  and  Melody.  His  melody  however,  is  very  short :  the  apparent  con- 
tinuity of  its  powerful  and  rapid  evolutions  consisting  of  an  endless  permutation 
of  chirps  and  short  phrases ;  for  I  have  not  perceived  any  formal  order  in  their 
successions. 

We  thus  learn,  that  the  vocal  constituents  of  the  song  of  the  Mocking-bird, 
like  the  vocal  signs  of  expression  in  speech,  are  few  in  number ;  but  in  each  case, 
our  ignorance  of  the  individual  signs,  leaving  us  to  regard  only  their  numerous 
combinations,  has  created  a  belief  that  they  are  infinite.  Thus  a  certain  quality 
or  interval,  may  be  heard  in  succession  under  every  variety  of  time ;  and  the 
same  concrete,  or  tremor,  or  shake  is  heard  upon  one  breath,  in  several  different 
qualities,  and  in  as  many  different  places  of  pitch. 

The  doctrine  of  the  signs  of  the  passions,  in  speech,  is  strictly  applicable  to 
the  voices  of  animals,  as  regards  those  sounds  which  are  purely  vocal  and  sepa- 
rate from  Avords.  Thus  the  repeated  chirp,  which  seems  to  be  the  idle  and  unmean- 
ing voice  of  birds,  is  generally  a  short  quantity,  on  a  single  rising  or  falling  con- 
crete second,  or  third,  and  rarely,  as  far  as  I  have  observed,  on  the  wider 
intervals.  A  prolongation  of  the  chirp  is  usually  expressive  of  their  passions 
and  appetites.  Pain,  love,  and  fear,  are  always  exhibited  in  the  movement  of 
the  semitone.  But  I  am  agreeably  led  on  towards  an  arrangement,  when  I 
designed  only  to  suggest  the  scheme  to  others. 

The  subject  is  at  least  curious,  if  not  useful.  But  it  lies  out  of  my  way. 
There  are  in  all  sciences  large  volumes  of  compilation  ;  let  us  have  from  some 
naturalist  with  a  good  ear,  a  little  book  of  original  truth,  on  the  matter  here 
proposed.  Let  it  be  done  by  pure  and  personal  observation.  Let  the  author 
not  lose  his  strong  breath  of  usefulness  and  fame,  by  a  puerile  precipitancy 
after  reputation  ;  nor  hasten  with  his  unripeness,  in  the  market-like  fear  of 
being  forestalled.  Patient,  enthusiastic,  and  unostentatious  study,  independent 
observation  and  thought,  and  a  disinterested  love  of  truth,  with  their  sure  and 
great  results  in  science,  ai'e  always  solitary  in  an  age,  and  cannot  therefore  be 

27 


410  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  TASSIONS.  ^ 

with  guttural  vibration  and  aspiration.  The  interval  of  pitch 
must  be  united  with  time,  whether  the  quantity  is  long  or  short. 
Not  one  form  of  expression  can  exist  separately ;  and  Ave  may 
have  under  a  single  syllabic  impulse,  a  long  quantity,  a  wide 
interval,  aspiration,  and  stress,  all  simultaneous  in  effecting  a 
a  particular  purpose  of  expression. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  instinctive  or  vocal  signs, . 
severally  denoting  the  states  of  mind,  variously  called  senti- 
ments, emotions,  feelings,  and  passions.     And  first ;  of  the 

Piano  of  the  Voice.  Some  thoughts  and  sentiments,  together 
with  certain  conditions  of  the  body,  that  may  be  associated  with 
them,  are  properly  expressed  by  a  piano,  or  moderated  voice. 
These  thoughts,  sentiments,  and  conditions  are  those  of  humility, 
modesty,  shame,  doubt,  irresolution,  apathy,  caution,  repose, 
fatigue,  and  prostration  from  disease.  They  generally  em- 
ploy the  simple  diatonic  melody :  but  some  emotions,  with  a 
piano  or  a  feeble  utterance,  use  the  semitone,  and  the  wave  of 
the  second.     Of  this  kind  are  pity,  grief  and  awe. 

Forte  of  the  Voice.  This  sign,  as  the  reverse  of  the  la^t,  is 
appropriate  to  states  of  mind  associated  with  muscular  energy, 
and  vivid  degrees  of  passion.  Many  sentiments  are  signified  by  a 
high  degree  of  force ;  for  in  addition  to  those  which  employ  it 
as  a  leading  characteristic,  such  as  rage,  wrath,  fear,  and  horror, 
some  that  depend,  for  their  expression,  chiefly  on  intonation  or 
accentual  stress,  do  at  the  same  time  assume  the  character  of 
forte  or  loudness.  Of  this  class  are  astonishment,  exultation, 
and  laughter. 

Quickness  of  Voice,  Inasmuch  as  quickness  of  the  current 
melody  generally  goes  with  Short  Quantity,  in  individual  sylla- 
bles, we  do  not  make  separate  heads  for  these  two  subjects. 
Some  states  of  mind,  under  this  division,  are  likewise  expressed 
by  other  signs,  particularly  by  Loudness ;  as  anger,  rage,  mirth, 
raillery  and  impatience.  Many  sentiments  having  their  princi- 
pal signs  in  forms  of  intonation  and  stress,  are  associated  also 
with  quickness  of  voice. 

forestalled;  and  on  this  point,  as  in  promises  of  quite  another  kind  to  man,  it 
will  be  with  those  who  seek  the  unaltered,  and  unalterable  truths  of  nature,  that 
the  last  in  Time, —  the  very  last  —  shall  be  First. 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  411 

Slowness  of  Voice.  Speakers  who  have  no  command  over 
quantity,  affect  to  be  deliberate,  by  momentary  rest  between  their 
words.  But  slow  time  in  discourse,  if  not  made  by  extended 
syllabic  quantity  would,  from  its  frequent  pauses,  be  monoto- 
nous and  formal.  Slow  time  and  long  quantity  are  generally 
joined  with  the  wave  ;  since  the  continuous  return  of  an  interval 
into  itself,  is  one  of  the  means  for  producing  an  extension  of 
time  without  destroying  the  equable  concrete  of  speech.  They 
are  an  essential  cause  of  dignified  utterance,  and  are  there- 
fore always  united  with  intonations  of  this  character.  Slowness 
of  time,  with  its  constituent  long  quantity,  is  employed  for  many 
emotions ;  as  sorrow,  grief,  respect,  veneration,  dignity,  apathy, 
contrition,  and  all  other  sentiments  embracing  the  idea  of  refine- 
ment and  moderation. 

Quality  of  Voice.  It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  here  all  the 
terms  denoting  the  forms  of  quality  or  kind  of  voice.  The 
following  are  some  of  them,  with  the  passions  annexed.  Harsh- 
ness is  affected  by  anger  and  imperative  authority :  gentleness 
by  grief,  modesty  and  commiseration :  the  whisper,  which  is  a 
kind  or  quality  of  voice,  by  secrecy.  The  falsette  is  heard  in 
the  whine  of  peevishness,  in  the  high  tremulous  pitch  of  mirth, 
and  in  the  piercing  scream  of  terror.  The  full  body  of  the 
orotund,  in  a  cultivated  speaker,  gives  satisfactory  expression  to 
sentiments  associated  with  solemnity  and  grandeur. 

The  Semitone.  The  simple  rise  of  the  semitone  is  rather  an 
unfrequent  form  of  expression ;  since  most  sentiments  with  a 
plaintive  intonation,  and  there  are  many  of  this  kind,  require 
a  long  quantity,  and  are  therefore  properly  represented  by  the 
wave  of  this  interval.  Still,  complaint,  grief,  and  other  emo- 
tions of  like  import,  may  sometimes  be  made  with  an  earnestness, 
requiring  a  short  syllabic  time.  In  this  case  the  voice  cannot 
bear  the  delay  of  the  wave,  and  effects  all  the  purposes  of  the 
semitonic  intonation,  by  the  simple  rise  or  fall  through  the 
concrete,  with  the  addition,  when  necessary,  of  the  radical  or 
vanishing  stress. 

The  Second  or  Tone.  Those  states  of  mind,  called  thoughts 
in  contradistinction  to  passions  ;  those  narratives  or  descriptions, 


412  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

which  represent  things  as  they  are  in  themselves,  "without 
reference  to  our  relation  to  them,  on  the  point  of  pleasure  or 
pain,  desire  or  aversion,  interest  or  injury,  are  all  represented 
by  the  plain  unobtrusive  interval  of  the  second.  The  various 
uses  of  the  voice,  properly  called  Expression,  have  something  so 
striking  in  their  character,  that  the  attentive  observer  may  easily 
recognize  them.  When,  therefore,  there  is  an  absence  of  this 
expression,  he  may  conclude,  the  current  of  speech  is  in  the 
diatonic  melody. 

The  Rising  Tliird,  Fifth  and  Octave.  These  intervals  are 
here  thrown  into  the  same  class,  because  they  are  generally  used 
to  express  different  degrees  of  the  same  sentiments.  According 
to  the  extent  of  the  interval  employed,  they  represent  interro- 
gation, under  the  different  features  of  dignity,  and  earnestness. 
They  mark  admiration,  and  hence  are  frequently  used  as  means 
for  emphatic  distinction.  When  united  with  aspiration  they  do 
the  part  of  the  downward  intervals  of  the  scale,  and  indicate 
surprise  and  its  congenial  emotions.  They  express  a  conditional 
sense,  on  emphatic  words.  The  octave  has  the  power  of  raillery, 
of  quaintness,  and  of  mockery.  When  the  guttural  vibration  is 
united  with  these  intervals,  particularly  the  wider,  it  adds  scorn 
to  a  question;  and  joins  to  their  character  in  emphasis,  the 
sentiment  of  haughtiness,  disdain,  reproach,  indignation,  and  con- 
tempt. The  deliberate  execution  of  these  intervals  requires  long 
quantity :  but  in  their  simple  rise,  they  have  not  the  extended 
time,  and  consequently  want  the  solemn  and  dignified  character 
they  assume  when  doubled  into  the  form  of  the  wave. 

The  Dowmvard  Third,  Fifth,  and  Octave.  In  general  descrip- 
tion, these  intervals  severally  express  different  degrees  of  the 
same  sentiments.  They  are  emphatically  the  signs  of  surprise, 
astonishment,  wonder  and  amazement ;  and  though  these  four 
terms  are  by  no  means  synonymous,  still  their  sentiments  are 
each  and  all,  according  to  their  degrees,  represented  by  the 
above  named  intervals :  the  specific  difference,  being  marked  by 
the  conventional  meaning  of  the  terms,  and  not  by  intonation ; 
for  this  was  assumed  as  identical.  These  downward  intervals 
denote  a  positiveness,  and  a  settled  conviction  on  the  part  of  the 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  413 

speaker  :  hence  they  are  given  to  phrases  of  authority,  command, 
confidence,  and  satisfaction.  A  downward  movement,  as  we 
have  learned,  also  produces  the  close  of  a  cadence ;  and  con- 
sequently, when  unaccompanied  with  force,  is  w'ell  suited  to 
express  sentiments  according  with  a  state  of  repose ;  such  as 
resignation,  despair,  and  the  condition  of  mind  that  attends 
fatigue. 

The  Wave  of  the  Semitone.  The  expression  of  the  simple  rise 
and  the  fall  of  the  semitone  was  spoken  of  above :  but  its  return  or 
contrary  flexure  into  the  wave,  is  the  most  common  form  of  this 
expressive  interval.  Indeed,  there  is  scarcely  a  vocal  sign  which 
represents  so  many  and  such  various  emotions :  the  specific 
■i^tinction  of  the  cases,  being  made  by  the  descriptive  phrase 
r  conventional  term.  The  wave  of  the  semitone  diiFers  from 
the  simple  interval,  in  the  dignity  of  the  expression,  derived 
from  its  extended  quantity:  and  in  its  enhanced  degree,  from 
the  repetition  of  the  interval  in  a  contrary  direction.  Sorrow, 
irrief,  vexation,  chagrin,  repining,  contrition,  impatience,  peevish- 
oss,  compassion,  commiseration,  condolence,  pity,  love,  fondness, 
supplication,  fatigue,  and  pain,  with  whatever  varieties  may 
exist  among  them,  are  still,  through  the  diiFerencing  of  the  con- 
ventional sign,  all  expressed  by  the  wave  of  the  semitone. 

Tlie  Wave  of  the  Second.  The  interval  of  the  second, 
whether  in  a  rising  or  a  falling  direction,  being  the  voice  of 
plain  unimpassioncd  narrative,  we  cannot  properly  call  it  a  form 
of  expression.  But  as  the  downward  return  of  this  interval 
into  the  form  of  the  wave,  produces  a  long  quantity,  it  neces- 
rsarily  adds  to  the  second,  the  peculiar  eifect  of  that  qi^antity. 
This  wave,  when  duly  extended,  gives  to  plain  diatonic  discourse 
its  full  character  of  dignity,  and  grandeur;  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
inappropriate,  and  therefore  unnatural,  intrusive,  and  vicious 
use  of  force,  quality,  abruptness,  and  the  wider  intervals  of 
intonation. 

The  Waves  of  the  Tliird,  Fifth,  and  Octave.  The  forms  of 
the  wave  are  so  various,  that  it  would  far  exceed  the  purpose 
of  this  work  to  enumerate  them,  and  to  assort  them  with  the 
passions.     The    principles  that  govern  their  expression,  were 


414  VOCAL  SIGNS.  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

unfolded,  in  a  former  section.  The  character  of  the  constituent 
intervals  of  these  waves,  has  a  large  influence  in  determining 
their  respective  expressions.  The  upward  vanish  of  the  last 
constituent  of  the  inverted  form  has  the  effect  of  interrogation ; 
and  the  downward  course  of  the  last  constituent  of  the  direct, 
carries  the  expression  of  surprise.  If  then  these  two  contrary 
forms  of  the  wave  have,  respectively,  through  their  final  con- 
stituent, the  same  character  as  the  separate  and  simple  rise  and 
fall  of  the  interval,  there  might  seem  to  be  no  necessity  for  their 
use.  But  even  supposing  the  effects  to  be  identical,  which  how- 
ever for  some  sentiments,  may  not  be  the  case ;  the  wave  affords, 
besides,  the  important  means  for  extending  the  quantity  of 
syllables,  and  consequently  for  expressing  the  designed  emotions 
with  dignity.  In  the  double  form,  the  wave  denotes  sneer, 
mockery,  petulance,  contempt,  and  scorn :  but  these  last  two 
are  more  conspicuously  exhibited  by  conjoining  aspiration  with 
the  single  wave. 

Tlie  Radical  Stress.  From  what  was  formerly  said  of  this 
stress,  we  know  it  to  be  the  means  for  adding  increased  degrees 
of  impressiveness  to  all  the  other  vocal  signs  of  the  passions, 
capable  of  receiving  it.  Though  it  is  more  particularly  employed 
on  immutabl^yllables,  yet  when  we  read  rapidly,  it  is  used  even 
on  those  of  indefinite  quantity :  but  rapid  reading  necessarily 
weakens  its  force.  Mirth,  impatience,  anger,  and  rage,  are  gene- 
rally uttered  with  haste,  and  therefore  take  on  this  stress,  in 
emphatic  places.  It  is  employed  on  imperative  words ;  for  it 
has  a  degree  of  positiveness,  similar  to  that  expressed  by  the 
downward  intervals  of  intonation. 

The  Median  Stress.  The  radical  stress  is  the  means  for 
enforcing  sentiments  on  short  syllables.  The  median  stress 
enliances  the  expression  of  those  requiring  a  long  quantity, 
together  with  a  deliberate  and  graceful  utterance.  I  say  together 
with  deliberatioh ;  since  long  quantities  do  sometimes,  for  par- 
ticular purposes,  take  on  the  abrupt  opening  of  the  radical,  or 
the  final  jerk,  of  the  vanishing  stress.  The  states  of  mind, 
calling  for  median  force,  are  those  represented  by  waves  of  the 
various  intervals ;  particularly  the  dignity  of  the  wave  of  the 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  415 

second,  and  the  plaintiveness  of  tlie  wave  of  the  semitone.  Of 
these  kinds  are  awe,  respect,  deliberation,  solemnity,  supplication, 
and  reverential  submission.  This  median  stress  may  be  executed 
on  a  simple  rise  or  fall,  when  unusually  prolonged  ;  thus  the  wide 
downward  vanish  of  surprise,  and  wide  upward  vanish  of  inter- 
rogation, may  sometimes  be  invested  with  this  graceful  form  of 
force. 

The  Vanishing  Stress.  So  much  was  said  of  this  stress  in 
a  former  section,  and  its  expression  was  so  particularly  noticed, 
that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  the  detail  here.  It  is  far  inferior, 
in  point  of  dignity,  to  the  median ;  but  it  is  sometimes  highly 
expressive  of  sentiments,  represented  by  the  semitone  and  wider 
intervals,  such  as  grief,  surprise  and  interrogation ;  for  by  im- 
pressing the  extremes  of  these  intervals  on  the  ear,  it  points  out 
their  several  ranges  more  distinctly  than  they  are  marked  by  the 
natural  vanish.  It  may  seem  to  be  a  nice  distinction,  but  it  is 
nevertheless,  true  and  practical,  that  care  must  be  taken,  not  to 
let  this  stress  run  into  the  thorough  stress ;  since  this  last,  as 
before  remarked,  rather  obscures  the  interrogative  expression. 

Compound  Stress.  So  much  was  said,  on  this  subject,  in  the 
thirthy-eighth  section,  that  the  reader  is  referred  to  it.  The 
compound,  like  the  median,  vanishing,  and  thorough  stress,  and 
the  loud  concrete,  cannot  be  made  on  short  syllables.  On  pro- 
longed quantity,  it  is  the  sign  of  energy  or  violence,  in  the 
passion  represented  by  it. 

The  Thorough  Stress.  We  refer  to  the  thirty-ninth  section, 
for  an  account  of  this  sign  of  rudeness,  and  vulgarity,  when 
applied  to  long  syllabic  quantity,  or  to  continuous  speech.  By 
destroying  the  natural  structure  of  the  vanishing  concrete,  it 
banishes  this  refined  spirit,  and  all-pervading  grace  and  delicacy 
of  the  human  voice. 

On  the  subject  of  the  Loud  Concrete,  as  a  sign  of  expression, 
I  have  nothing  to  add  worthy  of  record,  beyond  what  has  been 
previously  said. 

The  Tremor  of  the  Second  and  of  Wider  Intervals.  The 
tremulous  movement  of  these  intervals  designates  a  number  of 
sentiments  considerably  different  from  each  other.     And  here 


41G  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  5| 

again  we  have  an  instance  of  a  principle  widely  influential  in 
the  expression  of  the  passions :  for  these  sentiments,  though  set 
within  the  same  general-frame  of  intonation,  have  their  specific 
divisions  marked  by  the  conventional  terms  which  describe  them. 
The  tremor  of  the  second  and  of  wider  intervals,  is  shown  in 
the  expression  of  exultation,  mirth,  pride,  haughtiness,  sneer, 
derision,  and  contempt ;  and  in  effecting  these  expressions,  the 
tremor  may  move  through  the  simple  rise  or  fall,  or  through  the 
wave. 

^he  Tremor  of  the  Semitone.  The  tremulous  movement 
through  the  semitone,  on  a  tonic  element,  is  a  form  of  the  crying- 
voice.  When  therefore  it  is  used  in  syllabic  intonation,  it  implies 
a  deeper  distress  in  the  sentiments  associated  with  the  simple 
semitone.  All  these  sentiments  embrace  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  the  condition  of  suffering,  grief,  tenderness,  and  suppli- 
cation ;  and  though  they  may  widely  differ  from  each  other,  yet 
when  carried  to  excess,  they  naturally  and  alike  fall  into  the 
tremulous  intonation. 

The  Aspiration.  The  pure  quality  of  the  tonics  and  subtonics 
when  partly  obscured  by  its  union  with  aspiration,  denotes  many 
and  widely  different  states  of  mind ;  yet  with  the  aid  of  the 
conventional  signs,  it  can  clearly  express  them  all.  It  always 
accompanies  the  force  of  vociferations;  is  the  faint  sign  of 
secrecy :  and  is  joined  with  the  loud  utterance  of  all  energetic 
sentiments,  when  they  arc  not  strained  into  the  falsetto.  It  also 
indicates  the  emotion  of  earnestness,  curiosity,  surprise,  and 
horror.  On  a  former  occasion,  the  expression  of  contempt, 
sneer,  and  scorn,  was  assigned  to  the  wave,  particularly  in  its 
unequal  form.  But  even  this  does  not  carry  the  full  measure  of 
these  feelings,  if  an  aspiration  is  not  mingled  with  the  intonation : 
and  further,  the  union  of  aspiration  even  with  simple  upward  or 
downward  wider  intervals,  may  indue  them  with  the  power  of 
representing  these  same  sentiments. 

Tlie  Guttural  Vibration.  This  is  a  harsh  and  grating  vocal 
sign ;  and  therefore  belongs  to  all  those  states  of  mind,  to  be 
classed  under  ill-humor;  including  dissatisfaction,  peevishness, 
and  discontent.     But  it  likewise  appears  in  the  strained  ferocity 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  417 

of  rage  and  revenge,  and  is  the  common  sign  of  shaming 
rebuke.     It  also  has  an  import  of  sneer,  contempt,  and  scorn. 

Of  the  Emphatic  Vocule.  This  is  exclusively  an  indication 
of  force,  and  in  the  final  abrupt  elements  of  particular  words  is 
the  sign  of  anger  and  rage,  and  of  vehemence  in  any  passion.  It  is 
however  of  rare  occurence ;  and  being  almost  needless  in  culti- 
vated elocution,  ought  perhaps  to  be  even  more  rare  than  it  is. 

The  Broken  Melody.  The  Current  melody  has  been  repre- 
sented as  a  succession  of  diatonic  intonations,  occasionally 
employing,  for  the  purposes  of  expression,  every  species  of 
interval  both  in  concrete  and  in  radical  pitch ;  and  intersected 
by  pauses,  applied  as  often  as  the  sense,  or  a  call  for  vivid 
delineation  may  require.  But  sometimes  particular  states  of 
mind  overrule  the  occasions,  and  grammatical  proprieties  of 
pausing,  thereby  producing  notable  rests  after  very  short  phrases, 
and  even  after  every  word  of  a  sentence,  without  reference  to 
the  connections  of  syntax.  I  use  the  term  Broken  Melody,  to 
signify  the  interruptions,  sometimes  produced  by  the  excess  of 
certain  passions. 

The  nature  and  effect  of  this  function  will  be  understood,  by 
the  physiological  explanation  of  it. 

In  the  section  on  the  mechanism  of  the  voice,  two  kinds  of 
expiration,  were  described ;  one  resembling  the  act  of  sighing, 
whereby  all  the  breath  is  sent  forth,  in  a  single  impulse  of  short 
duration;  and  within  which,  scarcely  more  than  one  or  two 
words  can  be  uttered  with  ease.  The  other  is  used  in  common 
speech.  Within  it,  we  are  able  to  utter  whole  sentences,  by  a 
fruo-al  use  of  the  breath,  in  giving  out  small  portions  at  a  time, 
to  successive  syllables.  Since  the  former  manner  of  expression, 
seems  to  draw  off  all  the  contents  of  the  lungs,  it  may  be  called 
the  Exhausting  breath :  and  the  latter,  from  its  being  held  back,  to 
be  dealt  out  in  such  portions  as  syllables  require,  may  be  called, 
for  want  of  a  better  name,  the  Holding  breath. 

It  was  said  formerly, —  an  infant  begins  to  speak  in  the 
exhausting  expiration.  It  occurs  likewise  when  w^e  arc  '  out  of 
breath,'  from  exercise;  and  in  the  extreme  debility  of  disease. 
Hence  in  these  cases,  there  is  often  not  more  than  one  syllable 


418  VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS. 

lieard  in  a  single  act  of  expiration.  The  breath  of  the  tremulous 
movement  of  laughter  and  crjing,  is  of  this  kind.  The  tremor 
does  indeed  create  a  slight  difference  here :  but  if  the  reader  will 
for  a  moment  make  the  experiment,  he  will  feel  that  he  quickly 
laughs  and  cries  himself,  so  to  speak,  to  the  bottom  of  his  breath ; 
and  that  he  cannot,  without  an  inhaling  pause,  continue  the 
tremulous  function,  for  that  prolonged  period,  of  expiration, 
through  which  he  is  able  to  carry  common  speech.  Young 
children,  in  violent  crying,  sometimes  so  exhaust  the  lungs,  that 
there  is  a  considerable  pause  between  the  ebb  and  flow  of  respi- 
ration, much  to  the  alarm  of  inexperienced  mothers. 

The  state  of  the  respiratory  organs  in  the  exhausting  breath, 
is  produced  by  a  high  degree  of  certain  feelings.  Thus  deep 
distress  involuntarily  creates  this  kind  of  expiration,  in  the  form 
of  a  sigh.  Now  when  we  are  under  the  strong  excitement  of 
bodily  pain,  or  mental  suffering,  we  speak  in  the  exhausting 
breath;  with  but  one,  or  at  most,  two  or  three  words  within  a 
single  act  of  expiration  :  and  thus  by  the  intersections  of  repeated 
pauses,  the  Broken  melody  is  produced.  The  case  will  be  the 
same,  should  an  excess  of  feeling  blend  the  tremor  of  laughter 
or  of  crying  with  discourse  ;  for  by  the  nature  of  these  functions, 
the  melody  must  be  interrupted,  through  the  frequent  necessity 
of  inspiration.  It  may  be  asked,  why  the  breath  may  not  be 
rapidly  recovered,  as  in  the  momentary  rests  of  discourse,  which 
are  sometimes  scarcely  perceptible.  The  reason  is  this :  In 
the  holding  expiration  of  common  speech,  all  the  breath  is  not 
discharged  from  the  lungs ;  such  a  quantity  only  is  gradually 
spent  upon  the  words,  as  may  be  imperceptibly  restored  by  a 
momentary  act  of  inspiration.  But  in  speaking  with  the  exhaust- 
ing expiration,  there  is  an  expulsion  of  nearly  all  the  breath  by 
an  extreme  contraction  of  the  chest,  and  the  subsequent  act  of 
filling  the  lungs  requires  a  degree  of  expansion  and  a  depth  of 
draught,  that  cannot  be  imperceptibly  performed;  and  that 
occupy  the  time  of  the  remarkable  pauses  of  the  Broken  melody. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  the  phrases  of  intonation, 
employed  in  the  melody  here  considered.  They  may  be  of  every 
species;  though,  from  the   many  interruptions  of  the  current, 


VOCAL  SIGNS  OF  THE  PASSIONS.  419 

the  relationships  of  the  phrases  are  not  so  perceptible  nor  so 
important  in  practical  eflcct,  as  in  the  more  connected  sequences 
of  a  common  melody. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  open  the  Avay  for  a  future  descrip- 
tion of  the  various  forms  of  passionate  utterance,  and  for  a  sys- 
tematic arrangement  of  them.  They  have  been  regarded  as 
individuals,  although  not  one  is  ever  heard  alone ;  and  in  some 
instances  many  are  united  in  a  single  act  of  expression.  Indeed, 
they  are  employed  in  every  manner  of  compatible  combination. 
Thus  a  feeble  and  a  forcible  sound  cannot  exist  in  the  same 
impulse  of  utterance  ;  but  either  of  these  conditions  may  be  con- 
joined severally  with  all  the  forms  of  pitch,  or  quality,  or  time. 
No  one  interval  of  pitch  can,  during  the  same  syllabic  impulse, 
be  another  interval ;  but  any  interval  of  pitch,  may  as  occasions 
require,  be  simultaneous  in  execution  with  any  form  of  quality, 
time,  or  force.  So  in  the  wave,  the  intervals  of  pitch  may  be 
consecutive  in  all  possible  ways:  and  these  ways,  whether  in 
interval  or  arrangement,  may  be  conjoined  with  every  use  of  the 
voice,  not  at  variance  with  their  definition. 

By  the  use  then  of  the  comparatively  few  signs  of  expression, 
here  enumerated,  the  apparently  infinite  effects  of  speech  are 
produced.  The  preceding  specification  of  the  vocal  functions, 
and  the  numerical  limitation  of  the  terms  of  their  nomenclature, 
at  once  afford  an  observer  the  means  to  survey  the  whole  extent 
of  this  supposed  infinity;  and  thereby,  to  change  a  vulgar 
wonder  at  immensity,  into  an  intelligent  admiration  of  the 
obvious  combinations  and  endless  inter-mutable  variety  of  a  few 
distinguishable  vocal  constituents. 

The  reader  may  now  see  why  I  have  limited  this  work  to  the 
consideration  of  the  forms  of  expression,  in  their  separate  state ; 
or  have  only  regarded  a  few  of  their  combinations.  To  give  an 
extended  detail  of  their  possible  groups,  would  be  beyond  my 
design  in  setting  forth  the  broad  Philosophy  of  speech.  Nor 
indeed  is  it  necessary  under  a  practical  view ;  for  having  resolved 
the  apparent  complexity  of  speech  into  its  assignable  constitu- 
ents, we  cannot  be  at  a  loss  to  combine  them,  when  necessary, 
for  the  full  expression  of  sentiment  and  thought. 


420  VOCAL  SIGNS   OF   THE  PASSIONS. 

From  a  review  of  our  history  of  the  vocal  signs  of  the  pas- 
sions, and  a  reference  to  the  limited  amount  of  their  individual 
forms,  compared  with  the  vast  variety  of  mental  conditions  to  be 
expressed  by  them,  we  are  struck  with  the  disproportion  between 
their  respective  numbers:  while  we  learn,  at  the  same  time,  how 
the  deficiencies  in  the  natural  vocal-signs  are  supplied.  For  in  the 

First  place.  The  same  vocal  sign  is  used  for  more  than  one 
sentiment:  as  in  the  large  class,  respectively  denoted  by  the 
semitone,  and  by  the  downward  intervals. 

Second.  Some  of  those  sentiments,  generically  represented 
by  the  same  vocal  sign,  have  yet  their  specific  difference  marked 
by  the  verbal  sign,  or  the  conventional  language  that  describes 
them.  Thus  the  downward  octave  expresses  equally — command, 
and  astonishment ;  the  difference  in  the  sentiment,  under  the 
same  intonation,  being  signified  by  the  imperative  "word,  and  by 
the  phrase  that  declares  the  astonishment. 

Third.  A  great  number  of  sentiments  have  no  natural  vocal 
sign,  but  depend,  for  their  expression,  altogether  on  descriptive 
language,  or  their  conventional  terms.  Thus  there  are  no  vocal 
signs  by  which  a  speaker  can  inform  us,  even  if  he  would,  of  his 
avarice,  his  vanity,  or  his  remorse.  They  must  be  shown  in 
action,  or  be  confessed  through  his  words  and  syntax.  There 
are  indeed  resources  enough,  in  the  possible  combinations  of  all 
the  vocal  signs,  to  furnish  an  expression  for  every  thought  and 
feeling  ;  but  this  full  ordination  has  never  been  made. 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  421 

SECTION  XLIX. 

Of  the  Mode  of  Instruction  in  Elocution. 

I  HAVE  thus  far  endeavored  to  set  before  the  reader,  a  copy  of 
the  all-perfect  Design  of  nature,  in  the  construction  of  Speech. 
It  is  necessary,  if  we  may  still  carry  on  the  figure,  to  furnish  at 
the  same  time,  a  '  Working  plan,'  to  him  who  may  wish  to  build 
up  for  himself,  a  delightful  Home  of  philosophy  and  taste,  or  a 
popular  Temple  of  Fame,  in  Elocution. 

If  the  reader  is  one  of  those,  who  from  disappointment  in 
higher  hopes,  have  at  last  resolved  to  receive  their  station  in 
life,  through  the  suffrages  of  ignorance ;  and  who  in  their  accom- 
plishments are  careless  of  rising  above  the  discernment  of  their 
unthinking  constituents,  let  him  pass  by  this  section.  A  little 
will  serve  his  purposes ;  and  the  instinct  of  his  ambition,  without 
the  wise  designs  of  human  assiduity,  will  enable  nim  to  be  easily 
the  file-leader  of  his  herd.  But  if  he  believes  in  that  fine  induc- 
tion of  the  Greeks,  that  'good  things  are  difficult;'  if  he  sees 
the  successful  pretender,  still  restless  and  dissatisfied,  in  having 
made  captives  only  of  the  ignorant ;  if  he  desires  to  work  for 
high  and  hard  masters,  and  to  take  his  ultimate  repose  by  the 
side  of  their  ever-during  approbation,  he  may  receive  from  the 
following  pages,  some  assistance  towards  the  accomplishment  of 
his  resolution  to  acquire  the  art  of  Reading-Well. 

Can  Elocution  be  taught  ?  This  question  has  hertofore  been 
asked  through  ignorance.  It  shall  in  another  age,  or  I  mistake 
the  prevailing  power  of  science,  be  asked  only  through  folly. 

The  sceptics  on  the  subject  of  the  practicability  of  teaching 
elocution,  appear  under  three  classes.  To  the  First  belong  those, 
who,  knowing  the  ways  of  the  voice  have  never  been  traced, 
believe  they  never  can  be  reduced  to  assignable  rules.  This 
opinion  is  grounded  on  the  idea  that  the  expressive  eficcts  of 
speech  proceed  from  some  ' occult  quality;'  which  however,  is 
neither  high  nor  low,  loud  nor  soft ;  nor  in  short,  any  of  the 


422  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION; 

known  and  appreciable  modes  of  vocal  sound.  They  who  thus 
overlook  the  due  revelation  which  nature  never  withholds  from 
the  close  and  fervent  observer,  seem  to  have  just  such  an  idea  of 
vocal  expression,  as  poetical  school-girls  have  of  the  smiles,  and 
'side-long  glances'  of  their  interesting  young  admirers, —  that 
they  are  not  a  palpable  effect  of  the  physical  form  of  the  fiice, 
in  its  state  of  rest,  and  in  its  various  motions  ;  but  a  kind  of 
immaterialism,  which  darts  from  the  eye  and  breathes  from  the 
lips ;  a  '  soul,'  as  it  were  in  the  countenance,  which  is  yet,  in 
the  words  of  song,  'neither  shape  nor  feature.' 

The  scepticism  of  the  Second  class  promulgates  the  idea,  that 
accomplishments  in  elocution  are  the  result  of  certain  indescribable 
powers  of  genius,  and  that  the  happy  possessor  of  them  is  the 
production  of  one  of  '  nature's  moments  of  enthusiasm.'  Such 
sleio-ht  of  tongue,  to  hide  the  plain  agency  of  natural  causes,  is 
not  disdained  by  many  who  possess  powers,  sufficient  to  set  them 
far  above  all  stale-grown  tricks  for  reputation.  He  who  has 
the  truth  and  modesty  of  a  master  in  his  art,  knows  that  he  is 
distinguished  from  the  thousands  who  surround  him,  not  more  by 
a  superiorjty  over  their  vulgar  notions  on  the  subject  of  ambi- 
tion, and  the  chances  of  success,  than  by  his  singleness  in  purpose 
and  zeal,  and  the  accumulative  power  of  a  self-gathering  docility  : 
nor  does  he  withhold  instruction,  in  the  fear  of  rivalship ;  since 
with  the  justified  confidence  of  a  well  tried  knowledge,  he  per- 
suades himself,  that  if  any  useful  purpose  should  make  it 
necessary,  he  can  afterwards,  always  keep  pace  with  a  competi- 
tor, and  then  surpass  himself. 

Those  who  constitute  the  Third  class  are  too  intelligent  to 
believe  in  this  mystical  doctrine  of  the  Inspiration  of  genius ; 
yet  they  hold,  that  the  art  of  reading-well  can  be  taught  only 
by  imitation.  Elocution  may  indeed,  too  often,  have  satisfied  its 
faith  Avith  the  creed  of  Imitation:  and  thereupon,  set  up  its 
different  Idols,  for  public  worship.  But  when  has  the  world,  on 
a  single  subject  of  incpiiry,  ever  found,  in  that  faith  or  fiction 
which  sees  evidence  in  what  is  not  seen  alike  by  all,  any  other 
result  than  that  of  sophistical  labor,  without  product,  and 
illiberal  quarrels,  without  end.      Hence    the   vain    conceit    of 


MODE  OF  [NSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  423 

forming  a  school  or  doctrine  of  Imitative  Elocution  :  since  the 
several  partisans  of  different  favorites,  will  never  agree  to 
raise  any  one  individual,  to  examplarj  superiority.  An  example 
to  be  useful  and  permanent  in  art,  must  be  set  up  with  the  con- 
sent of  all :  and  that  consent  can  be  drawn  only  from  a  common 
source,  of  instruction  and  knowledge,  not .  from  individual  or 
party  admiration.  It  was  therefore,  under  an  ignorance  of  the 
possibility  of  a  common  source  of  knowledge,  on  this  subject, 
that  such  a  multifarious  substitute  as  Imitation,  for  the  steady 
unity  of  Principles,  was  at  first  proposed.  It  is  the  design  of 
this  essay,  to  furnish  from  nature,  and  not  from  variable  exam- 
ples of  authority,  those  describable  truths  of  the  art,  on  which 
all  may  begin  their  agreement,  and  by  extending  this  consent, 
may  at  last  raise  a  natural  and  universal  school  of  Elocution. 

These  are  some  of  the  objections,  made  against  an  attempt  to 
teach  tlie  uses  of  the  voice,  by  systematic  and  communicable 
principles.  We  will  not  confer  importance  on  them  by  refutation. 
In  so  doing,  we  should  only  record  some  vain  opinions  of  this 
age,  that  a  future  one  need  not  knot\r.  At  the  present  time,  let 
us  not  be  concerned  if  the  history  of  the  voice  contained  in  this 
essay,  and  the  scheme  of  instruction  founded  upon  it,  should  be 
'  either  stumbling-block  or  foolishness,'  to  the  groping  school  of 
mystagogues  and  imitators. 

The  preceding  history  furnishes  materials,  for  raising  elocu- 
tion to  the  condition  of  Regular  Art,  if  not  of  a  Science :  and 
we  must  look  to  the  comparisons,  and  conclusions  of  taste,  for 
precepts  to  direct  the  use  of  these  materials.  Our  history  will 
not  only  afford  the  means  for  reducing  the  arbitrary  fashion  of 
the  voice,  to  something  like  that  method  and  rule,  to  which  the 
other  fine  arts  have  been  already  brought,  among  their  educated 
and  reflecting  votaries ;  but  it  opens  a  new  field  on  the  subject 
of  instruction.  All  arts  when  reduced  to  their  elements,  have 
been  recomposed  into  systematic  schemes  for  teaching  by  those 
elements :  and  it  now  becomes  us  to  try  what  may  be  the  advan- 
tages, as  to  economy  of  time,  and  precision  of  means,  in  follow- 
ing an  elementary  plan,  for  communicating  a  knowledge  of  the 
nature  and  uses  of  the  voice. 


424  UOI>E  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

Language  was  long  ago  resolved  into  its  alphabetic  elements, 
and  its  Parts  of  speech.  Wherever  that  analysis  is  known,  the 
art  of  grammar  is  with  the  best  success,  conducted  upon  the 
rudimental  method.  Now,  if  the  expressive  uses  of  the  voice 
should  be  taught  by  a  similar  analysis,  the  advantage  would  be 
no  less,  than  that  resulting  from  the  alphabetic  and  grammatical 
resolution.  In  this  way  we  teach  a  child  the  elements  and  their 
combinations  in  speech:  surely  then,  there  is  no  reason  why  a 
clear  perception  of  the  varieties  of  stress,  of  time,  and  of  into- 
nation, and  the  power  of  consciously  employing  them  in  current 
utterance,  should  not  be  acquired  in  a  similar  elementary  manner. 

The  art  of  reading  consists  in  having  all  the  constituents  of 
speech,  whether  alphabetic,  or  expressive,  under  complete  com- 
mand, that  they  may  be  properly  applied,  for  the  vivid  and 
elegant  delineation  of  the  sense  and  sentiment  of  discourse.  I 
shall  not  in  this  section,  consider  the  modes  of  the  voice  as 
expressive  of  feeling  or  thought :  but  shall  describe  the  means 
for  providing  the  material  of  speech^  whenever  thought  or  feel- 
ing may  require  its  use.         ♦ 

If  I  were  a  teacher  of  elocution,  I  would  frame  a  didactic 
system,  of  elementary  exercises,  similar  to  that  which  taught 
me,  whatever  the  well-read  critic  may  find  to  be  new,  in  this 
work ;  and  would  assign  to  my  pupil  a  task  under  the  following 
heads : 

Of  Practice  on  the  Alphabetic  Elements.  Notwithstanding 
we  are  all  taught  the  alphabet,  we  are  not  taught  the  true  ele- 
ments of  speech :  I  would  therefore  require  the  pupil,  to  exercise 
his  voice  on  the  elements,  as  they  are  sounded  in  a  strict  analysis 
of  words.  In  the  present  school-system  of  the  alphabet,  many 
vowels  have  no  peculiar  symbol,  and  nearly  all  the  consonants 
when  separately  pronounced,  are  heard  as  syllables,  not  as  ele- 
ments. If  b  and  k  and  Z,  (and  what  is  here  said  will  apply  to 
all  the  consonants,)  be  sounded  as  respectively  heard  in  J-ay, 
and  A;-ing,  and  Z-ove,  that  is,  if  we  pause  after  these  several 
initial  sounds  have  escaped  the  organs,  we  shall  have  the  real 
elemental  constituents  of  the  syllables,  instead  of  the  compounds 
he,  kay,  and  ell^  as  they  are  universally  taught. 


f 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  405 

Let  tlic  first  lesson  then  consist  of  a  separate,  an  exact,  and 
a  repeated  pronunciation  of  eacli  of  the  thirty-five  elements,  in 
order  10  insure  a  true  and  easy  execution  of  their  unmixed 
sounds.  But  the  pupil  must  be  careful  to  pronounce,  not  the 
alphabetic  syllable  of  the  schools,  but  the  pure  and  indivisible 
vocal  clement ;  however  unusual,  and  uncouth,  that  sound  may, 
in  some  cases,  be  to  his  ear.  It  may  be  asked,  whether  a  care- 
ful pronunciation  of  words,  in  which  these  elements,  though 
combined  Avith  others,  must  still  be  heard,  would  not  give  the 
required  exactness  and  facility  ?  I  believe  it  would  not.  When 
the  elements  are  pronounced  singly,  they  may  receive  an  undi- 
vided energy  of  the  organic  efibrt,  and  therewith  a  clearness  of 
sound,  and  a  definite  outline,  that  make  a  fine  preparative  for 
distinct  and  forcible  pronunciation  in  the  compounds  of  speech. 
And  perhaps,  no  one  who  has  neglected  this  elementary  practice, 
is  able  to  give  the  guttural  murmur  of  5,  d,  and  g,  with  the 
Torce,  fulness,  and  duration,  required  on  occasions,  for  the 
liigher  powers  and  graces  of  elocution.  The  eflicacy  of  this 
separate  practice,  in  giving  a  command  ovqt  the  alphabetic 
sounds,  is  most  remarkable  in  the  r. 

The  element  r  is  a  modification  of  the  vocality  of  the  sub- 
tonics  ;  and  denotes  two  different  articulations.  One  is  made 
by  a  quiet  application  of  the  tongue  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth ; 
the  other  by  its  quick  percussion  against  that  part.  The  r  pro- 
duced by  the  first  organic  position,  differs  very  little  from  the 
short  tonic  e-vr,  and  may  be  called  the  Quiet  r.  That  formed 
by  percussion,  the  Percussive  r.  The  latter  has  a  distinct- 
ness of  character  and  body  of  sound,  not  possessed  by  the  other  : 
and  if  the  metaphor  can  be  appreciated,  the  parts  concerned 
in  its  formation,  seem  to  have  a  firmer  grasp  of  the  breath. 
Bat  this  Percussive  r,  even  with  its  vigor,  and  satisfactory 
fulness,  will  be  agreeable  only  when  it  consists  of  one,  or  at 
most,  two  or  three  strokes  and  rebounds  of  the  tongue :  for 
should  it  be  a  continued  vibration,  the  effect  will  be  offen- 
sively harsh,  if  not  expressly  designed  for  a  rough  or  energetic 
utterance ;  but  even  this  should  be  avoided.  The  perfect  r,  for 
the  purposes  of  distinct  and  impressive  speech  should  consist  of 
28 


w 


426  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

a  single  slap  and  retraction.  It  can  be  made  in  this  manner: 
but  it  must  be  done  through  long  trial,  on  the  solitary  element. 

Besides  the  difficulty  of  acquiring  strength  and  accuracy  in 
this  separate  pronunciation,  certain  combinations  of  the  r,  "with 
other  elements,  can  be  effected  in  an  agreeable  manner,  only 
after  long  practice.  A  subtonic  or  atonic,  that  employs  the 
tongue  in  a  certain  position,  will  not  readily  unite  with  an  ele- 
ment, requiring  a  quick  remove  of  the  tongue  to  another  part  of 
the  mouth ;  even,  as  in  this  case  of  the  quiet  r,  when  the  element 
is  produced  by  a  simple  pressure  of  the  tongue.  But  the  diffi- 
culty of  transition  is  much  increased,  by  the  velocity  necessary 
for  the  percussive  r.  Let  us,  for  instance,  suppose  a  syllabic 
step  from  d  to  r,  as  in  the  word  dread.  Now,  as  the  formation 
of  d,  requires  the  tip  of  the  tongue  to  be  applied  to  the  upper 
fore-teeth,  should  r  be  taken  quietly,"  the  confluence  of  these 
elements  may  be  easily  made,  by  retracting  the  tongue  to  the 
contiguous  place  for  forming  the  r.  But  should  we  roughen 
the  word  by  the  percussive  ?',  the  tongue  is  brought  down  from 
the  teeth,  towards  its  bed,  in  a  kind  of  drawing-off,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  sudden  impulse  against  the  roof  of  the 
mouth:  and  it  requires  both  effort  and  skill,  to  accomplish 
these  successive  movements  with  that  quickness,  which  syllabic 
coalescence  requires. 

There  is  also  considerable  difficulty  in  uniting  the  purcussive 
r  with  some  of  the  tonics ;  and  the  cause  is  analogous  to  that 
above  described. 

When  the  percussive  r  is  set  before  the  tonics,  the  coalescence 
is  easy,  as  in  rude,  reed;  but  it  is  not  so  when  it  folloivs  cer- 
tain of  these  elements.  If  the  tonics  are  of  long  quantity, 
there  is  only  in  some  cases,  the  slightest  difficulty ;  as  in  glare, 
war,  far,  peer,  mire,  our,  your.  But  if  the  natural  short- 
tonics  e-rr,  «-nd  and  i-n,  and  most  of  the  other  tonics,  when 
pronounced  short,  precede  the  percussive  r,  there  is  not  only 
a  considerable  hiatus,  but  that  peculiar  union  of  tonic  and 
aspiration  occurs,  which  forms  one  of  the  characteristics  of  speech 
in  the  natives  of  Ireland.  This  will  be  perceived,  upon  pro- 
nouncing the  following  words  with  the  percussive  r:  interpreter, 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  427 

world,  irritate,  intercourse.     The  cause  of  the  hiatus,  and  of 
the  Irishism,  appears  in  the  following  explanation. 

The  tonic  sounds,  though  in  greater  part  laryngeal,  are,  in 
some  cases,  modified  bv  the  agency  of  the  tongue  and  lips.  The 
tongue  is  employed  in  varying  positions,  from  the  deepest  de- 
pression in  its  bed,  till  nearly  in  contact  with  the  roof  of  the 
mouth.  Its  place  in  the  utterance  of  a-we,  is  the  lowest :  and 
the  highest  in  ee-\,  e-nd  and  t'-n.  Now  if  these  short  tonics 
precede  the  percussive  r,  there  is  a  hiatus  in  the  utterance,  and 
the  tonic  is  corrupted  into  a  semi-aspiration.  This  arises  from 
the  position  of  the  tongue,  creating  difficulty  in  making  the 
percussion.  But  when  a-we  precedes  the  r,  the  tongue  being 
in  its  bed,  is  in  the  proper  position  for  making  the  impulse,  and 
thus  the  combination  of  this  a-we  with  the  r,  is  easily  effected, 
and  is  free  from  aspiration  :  as  in  aurelia  and  reward. 

In  the  case  then,  of  the  short  tonics  preceding  the  percussive 
r,  it  is  necessary  to  bring  down  the  tongue  from  its  short-tonic 
position,  at  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  to  its  bed,  in  order  to  give 
it  starting-way,  so  to  speak,  for  gaining  its  percussive  velocity. 
The  aim  to  effect  this,  in  the  quickest  time,  produces  the  hiatus 
or  strained  efifort  of  pronunciation.  But  with  every  endeavor, 
there  is  still  a  perceptible  interval  between  the  change  in  the 
position  of  the  tongue,  from  its  short-tonic  place  down  to  its 
bed,  and  subsequently  up  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth,  the  place  of 
the  percussive  r.  And  as  there  is  no  cessation  of  vocality 
during  the  time  of  the  change,  the  depression  of  the  tongue,  or 
some  other  cause,  converts  that  vocality  into  its  peculiar  aspi- 
rated character.  This  mingling  of  aspiratioii  with  the  short  tonic, 
and  the  r,  produces  the  disagreeable  effect  perceived  in  the 
utterance  of  these  conjoined  elements. 

The  difficulty  of  executing  the  r,  under  the  circumstances 
above-mentioned,  will,  I  fear,  be  insurmountable  to  those  who 
are  not  persuaded,  that  the  perfection  of  all  their  accomplish- 
ments must  at  last  be  due  to  their  industry,  their  knowledge,  and 
themselves.  Those  who  know  that  a  fruitful  desire  of  know- 
ledge and  its  power,  is  the  growth  of  wise  docility  of  mind,  and 
heartfelt  resolution,   have  only  to  learn  that  it  is   within  the 


428  >IOI>E  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

capabilities  of  time  and  exertion.  How  long  it  may  take  to 
overcome  the  difiBculties  here  alluded  to,  must  depend  on  natural 
facility  of  organ :  nor  need  it  be  told  to  those  who  deserve 
instruction,  and  will  have  success.  To  such  spirits,  it  is  enough 
that  it  may  be  done. 

'^      An  exact  pronunciation  of  the  elements  according  to  the  rule 

'^  of  the  day,  is  a  matter  of  importance,  not  merely  as  to  formality 

^  of  fashion.     It  has  a  claim  of  greater  dignity. 

When  ideas  are  to  be  communicated  with  precision  and  strength, 
it  should  be  by  well-known  words,  not  peculiar  or  striking  by 
length,  nor  by  difficult  utterance.  There  should  be  no  remark- 
able contrast  between  them ;  no  attractive  similarity  in  their 
sound ;  nor  indeed  anything  in  the  language,  to  allure  attention 
from  the  idea  conveyed  by  it.  A  writer  not  strictly  didactic, 
who  frequently  employs  uncommon  words,  never  has  vividness 
or  strength  of  style.  For  the  accomplishment  of  these  points, 
sounds  should  slip,  but  effectively,  into  the  mind,  almost  without 
the  notice  of  the  ear.     Noav  what  is  here  said  on  the  distractions 

^  produced  by  the  novelty  of  words,  applies  equally  to  the  pronun- 
y elation  of  alphabetic  elements;  for  the  least  deviation  from  the 
assumed  standard,  converts  the  listener  into  a  critic :  and  it  is 
perhaps  speaking  within  bounds  to  say,  that  for  every  miscalled 
element  in  discourse,  ten  succeeding  words  are  lost  to  the  greater 
part  of  an  audience.  I  have  therefore  recommended  a  long-con- 
tinued practice  on  the  separate  elements,  with  a  view  to  acquii'e 
that  command  over  them,  which  not  only  contributes  to  the 
elegance  of  speech,  but  at  the  same  time,  may  help  to  remove 
all  obscurity  from  the  vocal  picture  of  thought  and  passion. 

Of  Practice  on  the  Time  of  Elements.  Enough  has  been 
said  in  former  pages,  on  the  necessity  of  a  full  command  over 
the  time  of  utterance,  in  order  to  effect  the  high  purpose  of 
elocution. 

When  a  true  pronunciation  of  the  elements  is  acquired,  the 
pupil  should  not,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  primer,  pass  at 
once  to  their  combinations.  They  are  employed  in  speech  under 
different  degrees  of  duration :  and  an  exercise  of  the  voice, 
through  these  degrees,  on  individual  elements,  creates  a  habit 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  429 

of  skillful  management,  not  so  well  cy  so  easily  acquired  by 
practice  on  the  common  current  of  discourse.  Let  the  pupil 
then  consider  the  alphabetic  elements  as  a  kind  of  Time-table, 
on  which  he  is  to  learn  all  their  yarieties  of  quantity.  The 
power  of  giving  well  measured  length  to  syllables  is  so  rare 
among  speakers,  that  I  have  been  induced  to  draw  especial 
attention  to  this  elementary  method  of  instruction. 

The  prolongation  of  the  atonies  is  of  little  consequence.  But 
let  the  pupil  reiterate  his  practice  on  the  tonics  and  subtonies, 
until  he  finds  himself  possessed  of  such  a  command  over  them, 
that  he  may  at  will,  give  any  quantity  required  in  their  syllabic 
combinations. 

The  elements  h,  d,  and  g,  admit  of  a  slight  degree  of  quantity, 
through  the  prolongation  of  their  guttural  murmur:  but  a 
strenuous  practice  on  the  individual  elements,  is  necessary  to 
render  it  applicable  to  the  purposes  of  oratorical  time. 

When  r  is  to  be  prolonged,  and  the  rapid  iteration  would  be 
inappropriate,  the  quiet,  or  smoother  form  of  the  element  should 
be  employed ;  since  the  percussive  r,  made  by  a  single  stroke 
and  rebound  of  the  tongue,  is  necessarily  short. 

The  element  s,  Avhen  alone  and  prolonged,  is  a  sign  of  con- 
tempt. In  syllabic  combination  it  is  offensive  if  much  extended 
in  quantity.  Under  its  shortest  time,  it  does  its  part  in  speech, 
and  loses  much  of  the  character  of  the  hiss.  Let  the  pupil 
therefore  practice  the  shortest  quantity  on  this  element,  by 
abruptly  terminating  the  breath,  or  by  separating  the  teeth  at  the 
moment  its  sound  is  heard ;  for  this  at  once  cuts  it  short. 

Of  Practice  on  the  Vanishing  Movement.  The  considera- 
tion of  this  subject  should  perhaps,  have  been  united  with  the 
last.  For  an  attempt  to  prolong  the  elements  Avithout  reference 
to  the  equable  concrete  of  speech,  is  very  apt  to  produce  the 
note  of  song.  The  difference  between  these  two  forms  of  into- 
nation, even  on  a  single  tonic,  will  be  perceptible  to  an  attentive 
ear,  by  keeping  in  mind  the  well  known  and  peculiar  effect  of 
speech  and  of  song,  while  trying  the  difference.  If  the  effort 
produce  an  equable  concrete,  it  will  not  seem  to  be  the  beginning 
of  a  song.     The  pupil  then,  without  confusing  his  ear  by  other 


430  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

particulars,  should  exercise  his  voice  in  the  natural  radical  and 
vanish,  on  all  extendible  elements.  An  unerring  power  of  exe- 
cution in  this  function,  however  long  the  quantity  may  be,  will 
always  insure  to  speech,  an  entire  exemption  from  the  charac- 
teristic of  song. 

In  this  elementary  intonation  of  the  equable  concrete,  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  structure  of  the  vanish.  The  pupil  must 
therefore  endeavor  to  give  it  that  delicate  expiration  which  may 
render  its  limit  almost  imperceptible  :  for  this  is  its  proper  form, 
except  some  purpose  of  expression  should  require  a  more  obvious 
demarkation.  "We  often  lean  the  ear  in  delight,  over  this  smooth 
breathing  of  sound  into  silence,  by  singers :  and  the  master  in 
elocution  shall  hereafter  know,  that  one  of  those  graces  which  he 
could  never  name,  and  even  thought '  beyond  the  reach  of  art,' 
but  which  Art  conjoined  with  Science,  is  now  ready  to  teach 
him,  consists  in  this  attenuation  and  close  of  the  syllabic  impulse, 
here  recommended  as  a  lesson  for  a  school  boy. 

Of  Practice  on  Force.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  how 
loudness  of  voice,  or  the  forte,  is  to  be  acquired.  It  is  not  essential 
to  our  discipline,  that  the  elements  should  be  uttered  separately 
with  regard  to"  force  :  since  after  the  other  constituents  of  expres- 
sive speech  are  brought  under  command,  exercise  on  force  may 
be  eflTcctcd  durin":  the  current  of  discourse.  Still  the  ends  of 
instruction  would  be  somewhat  easier  attained  by  the  elementary 
process  in  this  particular.  Few  persons  are  aware  of  the  influ- 
ence that  loud  speaking  or  vociferation  has  on  the  quality  of  the 
voice.  We  have  already  learned,  that  it  is  one  of  the  means  for 
acquiring  the  orotund.  It  takes  the  voice  apparently,  from  its 
meager  mincing  about  the  lips,  and  transfers  it,  at  least  in  sem- 
blance, to  the  back  of  the  mouth,  or  to  the  throat.  It  imparts 
a  grave  fulness  to  its  quality ;  and  by  creating  a  strength  of 
organ,  gives  confidence  to  the  speaker  in  his  more  forcible  efforts, 
and  an  unhesitating  facility  in  all  the  moderate  exertions  of 
speech. 

Of  Practice  on  Stress.  Although  the  elementary  exercise  on 
force,  in  a  general  sense,  may  not  be  required,  I  must  urge  its 
importance,  in  the  case  of  particular  syllabic  stress.     There  is  a 


i 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  431 

nicety  in  this  matter,  that  -will  be  definitely  recognized,  and 
consequently  can  become  familiar,  only  through  the  deliberate 
practice  and  unembarrassed  observation,  afforded  by  trials  on 
the  separate  elements. 

It  was  said  formerly,  that  the  radical  stress  is  made  -with 
emphatic  strength  only  on  the  tonics ;  still,  an  attempt  to  apply 
it  to  the  subtonics  is  not  to  be  entirely  neglected.  The  full 
power  of  radical  abruptness  in  the  tonics  is  acquired,  by 
opening  the  elements  into  utterance,  with  a  sort  of  coughing 
explosion.  The  pupil  cannot  be  too  strongly  urged  to  a  long 
and  careful  practice,  in  exploding  the  radical  stress. 

For  the  median  stress  or  swell,  no  particular  direction  is 
required  under  this  head.  It  is  generally  employed  on  the 
wave,  and  its  practice  may  therefore  be  connected  with  exercise 
on  pitch. 

The  vanishing  stress  may  be  practiced,  by  assuming  in  speech 
something  like  the  effort  of  hiccough,  for  the  wider  intervals 
of  the  scale ;  and  something  like  sobbing,  for  the  minor  third 
and  semitone.  If  we  at  all  recommend  practice  on  the  minor 
third,  it  is  not  with  reference  to  an  allowable  use  of  it  in  speech  ; 
but  to  render  it  so  familiar  to  the  ear,  that  it  may  be  avoided  as 
a  fault.  Elementary  exercise  on  Compound  stress,  and  the  Loud 
Concrete,  will  give  facility  when  required  on  these  forms  of 
Force.  Practice  on  the  Thorough  stress,  and  a  strict  compari- 
son of  its  effect,  with  the  effect  of  the  equable  concrete,  is  here 
recommended,  that  the  pupil  may  by  his  own  knowledge,  sense 
of  propriety  and  taste,  rather  than  by  any  authority  of  mine, 
be  guarded  against  this  gross  deformity  of  speech. 

Of  Practice  on  Pitch.  The  several  scales  used  in  this  essay, 
were  described  in  the  first  section.  The  order  of  proximate 
intervals  in  the  diatonic,  and  the  skip  of  its  wider  transitions, 
must  be  learned  from  an  instrument,  or  the  voice.  With  a  few 
days  attention  to  the  effect  of  the  various  rising  and  falling 
movements,  on  the  keys  of  a  piano-forte,  or  in  the  voice  of  a 
master,  a  pupil  Avho  has  the  least  musical  ear,  will  be  able  to 
execute  the  same  successions  in  his  voice,  and  thus  to  recognize 
the  concrete  pitch  and  change  of  the  radical,  on  elemental  or 
syllabic  utterance. 


432  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

After  this  first  lesson,  let  every  interval  of  pitch,  both  by 
concrete  movement,  and  by  radical  change,  be  practiced  on  every 
tonic  and  subtonic  element.  The  semitone  is  easily  practicable 
by  affecting  a  plaintive  utterance :  and  when  exercised  on  all 
the  elements,  will  readily  become  obedient  to  the  sentiments 
requiring  its  expression. 

I  must  negatively  describe  the  effect  of  the  simple  and  un- 
colored  interval  of  the  second,  by  saying, —  it  is  not  the  semitone, 
with  its  plaintive  character;  nor  the  rising  third,  or  fifth,  or 
octave,  also  well  known  as  the  sign  of  interrogation ;  nor  the 
downward  movements  of  positive  declaration  and  command ;  nor 
the  wave,  with  its  admiration,  sm'prise,  mockery  and  sneer.  If 
then,  in  syllabic  utterance,  we  produce  none  of  these  effects,  we 
may  conclude,  we  have  passed  through  the  simple  second  of  the 
diatonic  melody.  Let  the  pupil  practice  this  interval  on  all  the 
tonics  and  subtonics,  and  he  will  acquire  a  command  over  the 
constituent  of  this  jAa^in  intonation ;  nor  will  he  be  in  danger  of 
destroying  its  appropriate  character  by  the  whine  of  the  semi- 
tone, the  sharp  inquisitiveness  of  the  fifth  or  octave,  or  with  the 
more  offensive  affectation  of  the  wider  forms  of  the  wave. 

The  pupil  will  be  able  to  recognize  a  downward  interval,  by 
familiarizinsr  his  ear  to  the  effect  of  the  last  constituent  of  the 
triad  of  the  cadence.  This  will  teach  him  the  character  of  the 
falling  second :  and  by  studiously  repeating  the  tonic  and  sub- 
tonic  elements  with  reference  to  this  movement,  he  will  have 
nearly  as  clear  a  perception  of  the  peculiarity  of  the  interval, 
as  of  the  sounds  of  the  elements  themselves.  When  prepared 
with  this  downward  vanish,  he  may  contrast  it  with  the  rising 
second,  and  thus  become  familiar  with  the  audible  character  of 
each.  Upon  knowing  the  second,  the  wider  falling  intervals  may 
be  easily  recognized,  by  continuing  the  downward  progress,  till 
the  intonation  assumes  the  expression  of  command :  the  extent 
of  the  downward  movement  through  a  third,  or  fifth,  or  octave, 
being  proportional  to  the  less  or  greater  degree  of  that  sentiment. 
Let  these  intervals,  be  compared  with  the  wider  intervals  in  a 
rising  direction,  and  the  difference  between  the  intonation  of  a 
question  and  of  a  command,  will  thus  be  manifest. 


MODE  OF  KSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  433 

TThen  the  pupil,  has  gone  through  the  elements,  on  the  simple 
rising  and  falling  intervals,  let  him  turn  to  their  combination  in 
the  wave.  His  practice  here  must  be  governed  by  his  percep- 
tion of  the  simple  intervals  which  variously  compose  its  differ- 
ent kinds.  The  wave  of  the  second  is  of  great  importance, 
in  the  grave  and  dignified  character  of  the  diatonic  melody.  I 
cannot  by  any  graphic  sign,  or  by  direct  description,  bring  this 
function  before  the  reader's  attention :  but  in  giving  prolonged 
quantity  to  indefinite  syllables,  if  the  effect  of  the  upward 
or  downward  wider  intervals  is  not  recognized  ;  nor  the  peculiar 
note  of  song ;  nor  the  marked  impression  of  the  wider  waves, 
nor  that  of  the  plaintive  semitone ;  it  may  be  concluded,  the 
voice  is  moving  in  the  wave  of  the  second. 

Of  Practice  on  Melody.  One  difficult  point  regarding  into- 
nation, is  the  perception  of  the  radical  changes  of  the  second, 
in  the  progression  of  the  current  melody.  If  the  pupil  has  a 
musical  ear,  he  may  easily  acquire  the  habit  of  varying  the 
several  phrases  in  the  manner  formerly  mentioned.  Should  he 
not  have  a  nice  perception  of  sound,  nor  ingenuity  in  experiment, 
he  must  learn  the  diatonic  progression  from  the  voice  of  a 
master. 

Melody  is  a  continuous  function ;  practice  under  this  head, 
must  therefore  be  made  on  successive  syllables.  The  best  method 
'  is  to  select  a  portion  of  discourse,  to  keep  in  mind,  the  diatonic 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  read,  and  at  the  same  time,  to  utter 
only  the  tonic  element  of  each  syllable ;  and  thus,  by  a  sort  of 
vocal  short-hand,  or  instant  hackings  of  a  short  cough,  to  go 
through  this  dotted  outline,  as  it  were,  of  the  melody.  In  this 
case,  the  ear  not  being  embarrassed  by  the  subtonics,  the  differ- 
ence between  rise  and  fall  in  radical  pitch,  will  be  more  apparent, 
and  consequently  the  power  of  avoiding  monotony,  and  of 
mingling  all  the  phrases  in  an  agreeable  variety,  more  easily 
attained. 

Of  Practice  on  the  Cadence.  The  cadence  is  an  important 
part  of  the  melody  of  speech :  and  readers  being  therein  liable 
to  frequent  and  striking  faults,  the  subject  requires  discrimina- 
tive attention.     Here  particularly  the  elementary  practice  is  to 


434  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

be  employed ;  the  pupil  bearing  in  mind  the  different  forms  of 
intonation  for  terminating  a  sentence,  and  exercising  his  voice 
separately  on  one,  two,  or  three  elements  or  syllables,  considered 
as  a  close. 

By  elementary  practice  on  the  various  species  of  the  cadence, 
with  attention  to  their  construction  and  effect,  the  command  over 
intonation  in  this  particular,  will  be  exercised,  with  a  propriety 
and  precision,  never  yet  within  even  the  dreaming  purpose  of 
any  ancient  or  modern  system  of  Imitative  discipline.  After 
the  proper  time,  devoted  to  the  plan  here  recommended,  the 
pupil  will  find  himself  provided  with  an  ample  fund  for  every 
variety  in  his  periods ;  nor  will  he  then  find  himself  at  the  end 
of  his  sentence,  with  a  syllable  that  seems  to  have  got  out  of 
joint  with  its  intonation. 

Of  Practice  on  the  Tremor.  The  tremulous  movement  should 
be  practiced  on  individual  elements.  With  a  knowledge  of  its 
nature,  the  pupil  may  correct  himself  in  his  task,  and  finally 
acquire  the  accuracy,  so  essential  to  this  expressive  species  of 
intonation. 

It  is  true,  the  habit  of  laughing  and  crying  does  here  furnish 
a  wide  field  of  practice ;  but  it  is  to  be  recollected  that  we  laugh 
or  cry  in  a  natural  way,  upon  our  own  delight  or  suffering.  But 
when  the  tremulous  expression  is  employed  to  affect  an  audience, 
governed  in  its  taste,  as  it  may  come  to  pass  hereafter,  by  the 
knowledge  and  principles  we  are  here  unfolding,  it  should  be 
done,  not  only  according  to  the  sentimental  dictates  of  nature, 
and  Avithin  the  pale  of  her  truth,  but  also  with  that  refinement 
of  feeling,  and  finish  of  execution,  which  nature  herself  may 
never  find  purpose  enough  in  her  common  instincts,  to  accom- 
plish ;  though  she  may  be  ready  to  acknowledge  their  entire 
consistency  with  the  spirit  of  her  laws. 

Of  Practice  on  Quality  of  Voice.  Quality  is  capable  of  im- 
provement ;  and  the  practice  in  this  case  may  be  either  on  the 
elements,  or  on  the  current  of  discourse.  But  as  quality  is  most 
perceptible  on  the  tonic  sound  of  a  syllable,  perhaps  the  ele- 
mentary lesson  is  the  best  for  instruction.  In  whatever  way  the 
improving  exercise  is  conducted, by  it,  harshness  of  quality 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  435 

may  be  somewhat  softened :  a  husky  voice  may  be  brought 
nearer  to  pure  vocality ;  the  piercing  treble  may  be  reduced  in 
pitch,  and  the  thin  and  meager  voice  indued  with  greater 
fulness  and  strength. 

There  is,  however,  a  cause  of  deception  on  this  subject,  which 
deserves  notice  here. 

The  characteristic  Qualities,  or,  as  confounded  with  Pitch,  and 
vaguely  called,  the  distinguishing  '  tones,'  of  the  voice,  are  said 
to  be  unlimited,  and  like  the  face,  peculiar  to  each  individual. 
We  do  not  indeed  often  forget  or  confound  the  known  voices  of 
individuals,  however  numerous  they  may  be ;  a  proof,  by  the  way, 
that  we  all  have  an  instinctive  and  discriminative  ear,  for  the 
things  of  Speech,  without  having  names  for  them.  But  the 
distinct  recognition  is  here  made  upon  combinations  of  the  spe- 
cific degrees,  and  forms  of  force,  pitch,  and  time,  rather  than 
on  the  single  mode  of  quality.  Thus  one  speaker  is  characterized 
by  a  constant  use  of  the  vanishing  stress ;  another  by  that  of 
the  radical ;  one  employs  the  interval  of  a  third  in  the  current 
melody,  instead  of  a  second ;  while  some  employ  a  long,  and 
others  a  short  quantity  on  every  emphatic  word.  By  a  varied 
permutation  of  these  features,  a  countless  number  of  different, 
yet  distinguishable  faces,  is  given  to  the  body  of  speech.  And 
here,  as  a  comment  on  a  prevalent  idea,  that  speech,  with  its 
'  occult  qualities,'  is  too  subtle,  or  ethereal,  or  immaterial,  if 
you  please,  to  be  made  a  subject  of  science  or  art, —  let  us  re- 
mark, that  all  these  faces,  features,  aye,  and  delicate  expressions 
too,  are  perfectly  cognizable  by  the  common  ear. 

There  are  as  many  varieties  of  Quality,  as  of  any  one  mode 
of  the  voice,  and  more  than  of  some ;  the  amount,  however, 
falls  far  short  of  the  almost  endless  combinations  of  the  various 
forms  of  the  Modes  with  each  other. 

We  may  learn  that  the  Quality  of  a  voice  is  not  always  its 
distinguishable  mark,  by  attending  to  the  prolonged  note  of 
song ;  for  it  gives  quality  alone.  In  forming  a  judgment  from 
this  simple  prolonged  note,  exclusive  of  any  peculiarity  of  stress, 
time,  or  intonation,  it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  voices,  Avhich 
would  widely  differ  when  heard  through  only  a  single  sentence. 


436  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

Of  the  speaking  voices  of  a  thousand  persons,  nearly  every  one 
would  be  distinguishable,  by  the  varied  combination  of  the  re- 
spective species  of  pitch,  time,  and  stress.  But  if  the  same 
voices  were  severally  to  be  indicated  by  a  single  prolonged  note 
of  song,  the  differences  might  be  reduced  to  a  few  classes. 
There  would  be  forte  and  piano  voices  heard  among  them,  shrill 
and  hoarse,  clear,  aspirated,  harsh,  full,  meager,  dull,  and  ring- 
ing :  and  to  these  a  few  others  might  be  added.  Yet  even  these 
would,  in  some  cases,  be  distinguishable  only  by  a  cultivated  ear ; 
so  that  of  the  whole  thousand,  above  supposed,  perhaps  not 
more  than  twenty  classes  of  vocal  sound,  as  subjects  of  recog- 
nition could  be  found,  to  constitute  twenty  kinds  of  quality. 

Of  the  orotund  as  a  kind  of  voice,  we  spoke  in  a  former  sec- 
tion ;  and  described  there,  the  means  by  which  the  fulness, 
power,  and  grave  quality  of  this  voice  may  be  attained.  It  may, 
perhaps,  assist  the  reader  in  using  the  proper  means  for  acquiring 
the  orotund,  to  state,  that  the  voice  in  this  case,  is  apt  to  change 
into  what  we  formerly  called  the  basso-falsette ;  thus  producing 
that  '  double-lung'  kind  of  speech,  of  mingled  bass  and  treble. 

Of  Practice  in  Raindity  of  SjjeecTi.  Extreme  rapidity  of 
speech  may  be  employed  as  a  means  for  obtaining  a  command 
over  the  voice.  The  difficulty,  in  this  case,  of  making  transi- 
tions from  one  position  of  the  organs  of  articulation  to  another, 
requires  an  exertion  which  tends  to  increase  their  strength  and 
activity ;  and  consequently  enables  them  to  perform  all  moderate 
progressions,  without  hesitation.  I  would  recommend  the  utmost 
possible  precipitancy  of  utterance ;  taking  care  not  to  outrun 
the  complete  articulation  of  every  element :  and  this  makes  it 
advisable  to  set  the  lesson  on  some  discourse,  long  fixed  in  the 
memory,  that  no  embarrasment  may  arise  from  the  distracting 
effort  of  recollection. 

There  is  not  much  advantage  to  be  derived  from  elementary 
practice  on  Aspiration,  the  Emphatic  vocule.  and  Guttural 
vibration.  The  exact  and  forcible  execution  of  these  functions, 
does  not  require  the  exclusive  attention,  directed  by  the  rudi- 
mental  system  of  practice ;  nor  is  anything  to  be  effected  thereby, 
that  may  not  perhaps,  for  all  practical  and  tasteful  purposes,  be 
accomplished  in  the  current  of  discourse. 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  437 

Wc  have  thus  enumerated  both  the  articulatiA-e,  and  the 
I  xpressive  constituents  of  the  whole  assemblage  of  speech.  The 
only  question  before  us,  on  this  subject,  is,  -whether  we  should 
aim  to  acquire  a  full  power  over  these  constituents,  by  exercising 
the  voice  on  their  combination,  in  current  discourse,  or  by  sepa- 
rate and  repeated  practice  on  their  individual  forms. 

It  is  needless  to  propose  arguments  in  favor  of  the  analytic 
and  elementary  system 'to  those,  who,  from  experience  in  acquir- 
ing the  sciences,  have  formed  for  themselves  economical  and 
effective  plans  of  study.  Let  all  others  be  told,  that  one,  and 
perhaps  the  only  reason  why  elocutionists  have  never  employed 
this  system,  is,  that  they  have  overlooked  the  analytic  means  of 
vocal  expression  ;  and  have  therefore  wanted  both  the  knowledge 
and  nomenclature  for  an  elementary  method  of  instruction. 
There  are  too  many  proofs  in  science  and  art,  of  the  necessity, 
aid  the  success  of  this  rudimental  method  to  allow  us  to  suppose, 
lie  same  means  would  not  have  been  adopted  in  elocution,  if  they 
;.ad  been  known  to  the  master. 

Not  to  cite  instances  from  those  graver  studies  which  pro- 
eed  by  the  synthetic  steps  of  elementary  principles;  and  with 
no  intention  to  shame  the  '  genius'  of  an  elocutionist  and  his  gram- 
.;ar  of  imitation,  let  us  go  to  the  Ring,  and  see  the  Science  of 
i  iuscular  attack  and  defence,  an  over-match  for  the  best  efforts  of 
^■rength  and  passion,  Avhen  undirected  by  gymnastic  skill.  The 
'  fancy'  have  really  made  no  slang-like  or  degrading  application 
>i  the  word.  Science,  as  we  usefully  regard  it,  does  no  more 
than  lay  down,  for  art,  those  efficacious  rules  that  sagacity  has 
drawn  from  observation  and  trial :  and  though  it  may  not  always 
V  nnoble  the  subject  it  touches,  it  does  take  from  it,  that  charac- 
: eristic  of  brutality, —  the  instinctive  execution  of  what,  in  its 
causes  and  effects,  is  not  understood  by  the  agent.  Yes,  even 
the  Pugilistic  Art,  low  in  purpose,  yet  skillful  as  it  is,  has,  thus 
far,  outstript  the  philosophic  efforts  of  Elocution ;  and  claimed 
for  its  directive  principles,  the  justifiable  name  of  science.  And 
believe  me,  reader, —  the  elementary  training  in  its  positions  and 
motions,  carries  not  more  superiority  over  the  untaught  arm 
than  the  definite  rules  of  elocution,  founded  on  a  knowledge  of 


438  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

the  nature  of  tlie  voice,  Avill  have  over  the  best  spontaneous 
achievements  of  passion. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood  on  this  point.  I  do  not  saj,  the 
method  of  instruction  here  proposed,  can  create  the  essential 
powers  of  a  speaker :  but  futurity  Avill  probably  show  that  some 
such  system  alone  can  direct,  enlarge,  and  perfect  them.  '  Pas- 
sion,' says  a  writer,  'knows  more  than  art.'  It  may,  indeed,  in 
its  own  way,  know  more  than  art.  But  art,  in  its  own  way,  like 
prudence  in  human  affairs,  sometimes  knows  better  than  passion. 
A  display  of  the  passions  in  speech,  is  not  always  addressed  to 
persons  under  the  sympathetic  influence  of  those  passions.  When 
it  is,  or  when,  at  moments,  the  speaker  can  raise  that  sympathy, 
all  is  right  that  passion  does.  When,  however,  passion  is  no 
longer  the  slave  either  of  words  or  will,  and  we  are  able  to  con- 
template its  free  and  better  nature,  without  its  waywardness  and 
excesses,  such  comparisons  arise  between  what  we  feel  ourselves, 
on  the  different  occasions  of  excitement,  and  what  we  observe  in 
others,  that  we  are  obliged  to  call  upon  reason  and  taste  for  some 
educational  rule,  of  Tilings  as  they  Should  be,  to  settle  an  un- 
certainty of  opinion.  Passion,  as  we  know  it,  is  only  the  Enact- 
ing of  a  certain  character  of  Ideas  ;  and  with  none,  except  fools 
and  madmen,  is  an  Outlaw  of  the  Mind,  but  is  still  amenable 
to  its  directive  though  excited  authority.  We  need  not  go  far, 
for  the  true  history  of  what  is  called  the  Natural  Manner  in 
speech,  thus  prompted  by  spontaneous  passion.  The  everyday 
vulgar  triumphs  of  popular  eloquence, —  in  which  the  demagogue, 
and  the  sectary,  lead  away  an  audience,  eager  to  pursue  the  same 
selfish  schemes  of  profit  or  of  fanatical  delusion, —  are  proof  of 
what  this  oratorical  sympathy  is ;  and  what  passion  alone  can 
sometimes  do,  without  the  aid  of  truth,  or  reason,  or  honesty  or 
taste. 

We  look  for  no  more,  from  a  well  devised  practical  system  of 
elocution,  than  Ave  are  every  day  receiving  from  established  arts. 
All  men  speak  and  reason,  for  these  acts  are  as  natural  as  pas- 
sion ;  but  the  arts  of  grammar,  rhetoric  and  logic,  teach  us  to 
do  these  things  in  the  best  manner.  In  short,  doing  them  in  the 
best  manner  is  signified  by  the  name  of  these  arts. 


MODE  OP  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  439 

The  subject  of  elementary  instruction,  may  be  otherwise  re- 
garded. The  human  muscles  are,  at  the  common  call  of  exercise, 
obedient  to  the  will.  Now  there  is  scarcely  a  boy  of  physical 
activity  or  enterprise,  who,  on  seeing  a  Posture-master,  does  not 
set  himself,  in  some  way,  to  imitate  him  ;  to  catch  -and  keep  the 
centre  of  gravity  through  the  varieties  of  balance  and  motion. 
Yet  this  will  not  prevent  failure  in  his  first  attempts,  however 
natural  the  tie  between  his  will  and  his  muscles  may  be.  For 
without  experience,  he  kno'\>s  not  what  is  to  be  done;  or  if  he 
knows,  he  is  unable,  without  long  practice,  to  effect  it.  And 
thus,  there  are  many  persons,  not  destitute  of  feeling  or  passion, 
who  have  a  free  command  of  the  voice,  on  the  common  occa- 
sions of  life,  but  who  utterly  fail,  when  they  attempt  to  imitate 
the  varied  power  of  the  habitual  speaker.  When  the  voice  is 
prepared  by  elementary  practice,  thoughts  and  sentiments  find 
the  confirmed  and  pliant  means  of  expression,  ready  to  effect  a 
satisfactory  and  elegant  accomplishment  of  their  designs. 

The  organs  of  speech  are  capable  of  a  certain  range  of  exer- 
tion :  and  to  fulfill  all  the  demands  of  a  finished  elocution,  they 
should  be  carried  to  the  extent  of  that  capability.  Actors  who 
possess  both  strong  and  delicate  feelings,  and  earnestly  express 
them  in  speech,  are  always  approximating  toward  this  power  in 
the  voice ;  and  with  no  other  assistance  than  of  that  habitual 
exercise  which  enlarges  their  instinct,  do  in  time,  acquire  a 
command  over  the  forms,  and  degrees  of  pitch,  and  stress,  and 
time  ;  without  the  Actor  himself,  being  at  all  aAvare  of  the  nature 
of  his  attainments,  or  having  one  intelligent  idea,  of  the  ways, 
means,  and  effects  of  their  application.  The  elementary  method 
of  instruction  here  proposed,  being  founded  on  the  nature  of 
speech,  at  once  points  out  to  the  Actor,  what  is  to  be  desired 
and  attained ;  and  thus  directs  him  to  the  thoughtful  fulfillment 
of  every  purpose  of  sense  and  passion. 

It  was  not  until  long  after  the  invention  of  the  Bow  for  the 
gliding  touch  of  stringed  instruments,  that  its  use  was  subjected 
to  accurate  observation.  A  few  belonging  to  that  class  of  man- 
kind who  find  out,  for  themselves,  the  best  way  to  effect  their 
object,  may  have  exhibited  rare  instances  of  skill  in  its  manage- 


440         .  ^iODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 


V 

I 


ment.  But  as  soon  as  inquiry  had  made  something  like  an 
analysis  of  their  dexterity,  the  master  was  aljle  to  point  out  to 
the  pupil  the  muscular  sleight  of  wrist  and  arm  which  its  hand- 
ling requires  ;  their  combined  and  successive  motions  ;  together 
with  that  full  feeling  of  the  will,  as  it  were,  present  in  the  muScle, 
which  insures  undeviating  steadiness  in  every  sweep,  and  gives 
the  power  of  a  sort  of  conscious  spasm  for  the  purpose  of  a 
momentary  touch.  When  these  points  were  ascertained,  instruc- 
tion began  to  adopt  the  economy  of  elementary  rules;  and 
confidence,  rapidity,  precision,  smoothness,  an'd  variety  of  exe- 
cution, became  common  accomplishments  in  the  arj;  of  Bowing. 

When  an  attempt  is  made  to  teach  an  art,  withoT#commencing 
with  its  simple  elements,  combinations  of  elements  pass  with  the 
pupil  for  the  elements  themselves,  and  holding  them  to  be  almost 
infinite,  he  abandons  his  hopeless  task.  An  education  by  the 
method  we  are  here  recommending,  reverses  this  disheartening 
duty.  It  reduces  the  seeming  infinity  to  computable  numbers ; 
and  I  have  supposed, —  one  of  the  first  comments  on  the  forego- 
ing history,  may  refer  to  the  unexpected  simplicity  of  means, 
employed  by  nature,  to  produce  the  unbounded  permutations  of 
speech.  Kay,  this  essay  itself  will  fare  better  than  other  simi- 
lar efibrts  in  science,  if  some  of  the  perishing  criticism  of  the 
day  should  not  find  good  reason  with  itself,  for  overlooking  the 
difficulty,  of  penetrating  and  tracing  the  mysterious  thicket  of 
speech  to  its  palpable  roots,  by  being  told  how  few  and  how 
accessible  they  are. 

In  our  proposed  method  of  instruction,  we  have  in  view  the 
strictest  propriety,  and  the  highest  finish  of  the  voice.  An 
ordinary,  and  even  vicious  use  of  Speech,  as  we  all  know,  may 
serve  for  Buying  and  Selling,  either  in  the  common  course  of 
Trade,  or  in  Election-frauds,  and  Legislative  Bribery.  But 
where  the  powers  and  beauties  of  the  voice  are  the  subject  of 
reflection  and  taste,  it  is  necessary  to  employ  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  precise  means  for  its  cultivation.  It  would  be 
possible,  even  without  regard  to  the  alphabet,  to  teach  a  savage, 
to  read  by  directing  him,  word  by  Avord,  to  follow  a  master. 
And  thus  it  has  been  proposed  to  teach  elocution,  by  a  similar 


MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION.  441 

process  of  imitative  instruction.  But  tlie  attentive  reader  must 
now  know,  with  me,  and  others  may  know  hereafter,  that  the 
analysis  of  words  into  their  alphabetic  elements,  and  the  rudi- 
mental  method  of  teaching  instituted  thereupon,  do  not  give 
more  facility,  in  the  discriminations  of  the  eye  on  a  written 
•page,  than  the  means  here  proposed,  will  afford  to  the  student 
of  elocution,  who  wishes  to  excel  in  all  the  useful  and  elegant 
purposes  of  speech. 

Let  the  master  and  his  pupil,  or  his  whole  school,  meet  at 
first,  without  their  little  hooks ;  the  master  having  the  great 
Book  of  Nature  in  reserve,  but  all  got  well  by  heart.  Let  the 
master  then  exemplify  the  graceful  gliding  of  the  vanish,  vrith 
the  effect  of  the  second  and  other  intervals  of  pitch.  Let  him 
make  the  pupil  sensible  of  the  difference  of  these  intervals  by 
separate  and  by  compared  utterance.  Let  him  show  the  peculiari- 
ties of  a  rising  and  of  a  falling  movement ;  of  the  waves ;  of 
the  diatonic,  and  the  chromatic  melodies ;  of  the  cadences ;  of 
the  stresses ;  in  short,  let  the  lessons  consist  of  his  illustrations 
of  every  constituent  function  of  speech.  Let  the  pupil  practice 
all  this  when  he  retires ;  and  on  returning  to  his  master,  let  it 
not  be  to  hear  him  read,  and  vainly  try  to  imitate  him,  but  to 
repeat  his  elementary  task,  through  all  the  available  modes,  forms, 
and  varieties  of  the  voice.  When  he  is  completely  familiar  with 
these  rudiments,  then,  and  not  before,  let  him  begin  to  read. 

If  high  accomplishment  in  elocution  be  an  object  of  ambition, 
the  system  of  instruction  offered  in  this  section,  will,  until  a 
better  method  is  proposed,  furnish  the  easiest  and  shortest  means 
for  success. 

After  all  that  has  been  said,  the  best  contrived  scheme  will 
be  of  little  avail,  without  the  utmost  zeal  and  perseverance  on 
the  part  of  the  learner.  It  is  an  impressive  saying  by  an  ele- 
gant genius  of  the  Augustan  age,  who  drew  his  maxim  from  the 
Greek  Tragedy,  and  illustrated  it  by  his  own  life  and  fame,  that 
'  nothing  is  given  to  mortals  without  indefatigable  labor :'  meaning 
thereby,  that  works  which,  from  their  rare  and  surpassing  merit.s, 
are  supposed  to  proceed  from  a  peculiar  endowment  by  Heaven, 
are  in  reality,  but  the  product  of  hard  and  unremitting  industry. 
29 


442  MODE  OF  INSTRUCTION  IN  ELOCUTION. 

It  is  pitiable  to  ^Aitness  the  hopes  and  conceits  of  ambition, 
without  a  resolute  spirit  in  its  required  exertions.  The  art 
of  reading-well  is  one  of  those  accomplishments,  all  "wish  to  pos- 
sess, many  think  they  have  already,  and  some  set-about  to 
acquire.  These,  after  a  few  lessons  with  an  Elocutionist,  and 
no  toil  of  their  own,  are  disappointed  at  not  becoming  themselves 
at  once  masters  of  the  art ;  and  abandon  the  study,  for  some 
new  subject  of  trial  and  failure.  Such  cases  of  infirmity  are  in 
part  the  result  of  an  inconstancy  in  the  whole  Tribe  of  human 
nature ;  but  they  chiefly  arise  from  defects  in  the  usual  course 
of  instruction.  Go  to  some,  may  w'e  say,  all  of  our  Colleges 
and  Universities,  and  observe  how  the  art  of  speaking,  is  not 
taught  there.  See  a  boy  of  but  fifteen  years, — with  no  want  of 
youthful  diffidence  or  feeling,  and  not  without  a  craving  desire 
to  learn, —  sent  upon  a  Stage,  pale  and  choking  with  apprehen- 
sion ;  being  forced  into  an  attempt  to  do  that,  without  instruction, 
which  he  came  purposely  to  learn  ;  and  furnishing  amusement 
to  his  class-mates,  by  a  pardonable  awkwardness,  that  should  be 
punished,  in  the  person  of  his  pretending  but  neglectful  preceptor, 
with  little  less  than  scourging.  Then  visit  a  Conservatorio  of 
music ;  observe  there,  the  elementary  out-set,  the  orderly  task, 
the  masterly  discipline,  the  unwearied  superintendence,  and  the 
incessant  toil  to  reach  the  utmost  accomplishment  in  the  Singing- 
Voice  ;  and  afterwards  do  not  be  surprised  that  the  pulpit,  the 
senate,  the  bar,  and  the  chair  of  medical  professorship,  are  filled 
with  such  abominable  drawlers,  mouthers,  mumblers,  clutterers, 
squeakers,  chanters,  and  mongers  in  monotony :  nor  that  the 
schools  of  Singing  are  constantly  sending  abroad  those  great 
instances  of  vocal  wonder,  who  triumph  along  the  high  places  of 
the  worhl ;  who  are  bidden  to  the  halls  of  fashion  and  wealth  ; 
who  sometimes  quell  the  pride  of  rank,  by  a  momentary  sensa- 
tion of  envy :  and  who  draw  forth  the  intelligent  curiosity,  and 
produce  the  crowning  delight  and  approbation  of  the  Prince  and 
the  Sage.* 

*  It  is  remarkable  of  the  Science  of  the  Voice,  that  the  successful  cultivation 
of  the  department  of  Song,  through   the  profound  and  beautiful  analysis  of 


t 

i 


RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH.  44? 


SECTION  L. 

Of  the  Rytlimus  of  Speech., 

In  the  section  on  Time,  some  allusion  was  made  to  the  subject 
of  Rythmus.  I  there  endeavored  to  show  the  circumstances 
under  which  stress  and  time,  or  as  they  are  otherwise  called, 
accent  and  quantity,  produce  by  their  alternations  the  agreeable 
impressions  of  verse.  I  now  offer  a  more  formal  account  of  this 
matter,  with  the  design  to  speak  of  the  Rythmus  of  prose ;  and 
to  notice  in  as  few  words  as  possible,  the  ingenious  system  of 
Mr.  Steele,  on  the  subject  of  accentuation  and  pause :  this  being 
among  the  first  results,  in  modern  times,  of  an  inquiry  into  the 
philosophy  of  spoken  language. 

Speech  would  not  be  convenient  for  the  interchange  of  thoughts 

melody,  and  harmony,  should  never  have  extended  its  searching  influence  into 
the  more  important,  and  equally  aesthetic  department  of  speech. 

Having,  after  a  long  and  active  search,  collected  quite  a  library  of  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent  works  on  elocution ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Steele,  Mr. 
Odel,  and  Mr.  Walker,  finding  them  all,  both  ancient  and  modern,  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  same  common  materials  of  the  art,  arranged,  and  detailed  with  a 
varied  ability :  I  had  some  curiosity  to  know  the  practical  method  of  eminent 
Vocal  Institutions.  During  my  residence  in  Paris,  through  the  winter  of  eighteen 
hundred  and  forty-five— six,  I  sought  by  every  due  effort,  to  obtain  from  direct, 
and  personal  observation,  a  knowledge  of  the  instructive  Course  of  Declamation, 
employed  in  the  Conservatorio.  I  found  however,  through  a  friend  of  some 
influence  in  this  matter,  that  under  a  general  rule,  admission  could  not  be  ob- 
tained. 

Upon  information  derived  from  a  Vocalist,  at  that  time  under  tuition,  for  hi.s 
appearance  in  the  Opera,—  who  described  to  me,  the  directive,  and  examplary 
means  of  the  master,  the  imitative  practice  of  the  pupil,  and  the  detailed  rou- 
tine of  the  task,— I  was  led  to  conclude,  they  had  nothing  out  of  the  common 
way,  on  the  nature  and  intonative  meaning,  either  of  Declamation  or  Recitative  ; 
nor  the  least  idea  of  a  Philosophy  of  Speech,  to  throw  the  necessary  light  of 
explanation  upon  them :  and  that  while  the  exclusion  of  visitors,  might  be  no 
deprivation  to  the  studious  observer,  the  duties  of  the  Institution,  might  by  this 
precaution,  be  saveil  from  the  vexatious  intrusion  of  the  tens  of  thousands  idle, 
restless,  and  ennui'd  Sojourners  in  the  great  Metropolis. 


444  RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH. 

and  feelings,  if  every  syllable  of  every  word  were  successively 
accented.  For  by  this  uniform  accentuation,  it  would  want  that 
vocal  light  and  shade,  and  that  pronounced  relief,  required  for  a 
distinct  picture  of  thought ;  words,  and  consequently  thoughts, 
would  not  be  easily  distinguished  from  each  other ;  and  speech 
would  be  inconveniently  slow.  Whether  this  slowness  would 
result  from  the  hiatus,  in  passing  from  one  syllable  to  another, 
each  with  a  full  radical  upon  it,  we  need  not  here  inquire.  It  is 
enough  to  know,  that  if  the  following,  or  any  other  sentence  be 
read  with  every  syllable  accented,  the  delay  will  be  unavoidable. 

The  Right  of  suf-frage  in  a  Re-pub-lic,  will,  through  the  suc-ces-sive  Oli- 
gar-chy  of  weak  and  am-bi-tious  Knaves,  al-ways  end  in  the  Wrongs  of  the 
Peo-ple. 

Now,  although  this  political  axiom,  should  be  deliberately  read 
as  well  as  closely  laid  to  heart ;  still,  with  an  impressive  accent 
on  every  syllabic,  the  pronunciation  of  this  eternal  truth,  would 
far  exceed  in  time,  even  what  its  solemn  utterance  deserves.* 
Thus,  to  the  alternation  of  strong  and  weak  accent,  with  the 
variations  of  long  and  short  quantity,  is  ascribable  much  of  the 
power  and  beauty  of  speech. 

This  being  the  nature  of  the  accentual  function,  Mr.  Steele, 
by  an  original  view  of  the  relations  between  accent,  quantity, 
and  pause,  made  a  division  of  the  line  of  speech,  analagous  to 
that  of  the  Bars  of  musical  notation.  These  may  be  called 
Accentual  Sections.  We  will  attempt  to  explain  part  of  the 
system  of  Mr.  Steele,  by  the  following  sentence ;  using  italics 
in  place  of  his  symbol  for  the  accented  syllable ;  and  numbering 
the  sections,  merely  for  reference. 

12  3  4  5  6 

"I        In  the  I  sec ond  |  cent u-ry  |  "j     of  the  ]  chrisi ian  (  e ra  | 

7  8  9  ]0  n  12 

"]        the  I  em pire  of  |     liome     |  "]        com-pre  |  hend ed  the  |  fair est  | 

13  14  15  10  17  18 

part     of  the  |  earth      1  |  "J     and  the  |  most      "]  |  civ i-lized  |  par tion  j 

19  20 

T    of  man  |     kind    \ 

*  Let  us  take  another  example,  to  be  read  with  an  emphasis  on  CTcry  syllable. 
The  dif-fer-ence  be-tween  the  two  great  An-tag-o-nists,  a-mong  na-tioos,  is 


RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH.  445 

Mr.  Steele  first  assumes  the  time  of  the  several  bars  to  be 
equal,  like  that  of  the  bars  in  music :  the  term  bar,  meaning, 
not  the  vertical  lines,  but  the  space  between  them.  He  next 
subdivides  a  sentence  into  bars,  each  containing  a  full  syllabic 
quantity,  or  a  syllabic  quantity  and  a  silent  time,  or  pause. 
Now,  supposing  a  bar,  or  accentual  section,  to  contain  one 
accented  syllable,  or  heavy  Poize,  as  he  calls  it ;  and  one  or 
more  unaccented,  which  he  calls  the  light  Poize ;  the  beginning 
of  the  bar  is  always  occupied  by  the  heavy  accent,  and  the  end 
by  the  light,  or  in  their  absence,  by  respectively  equivalent  pauses. 
In  the  first  bar  of  the  above  example,  there  is  no  heavy  accent, 
for  the  sentence  begins  with  two  light  syllables,  but  its  time  is 
indicated  by  the  symbol  of  a  pause.  The  word  second,  in  the 
next  bar,  has  a  heavy  syllable  followed  by  a  light  one,  and  thus 
makes  a  full  and  regular  time.  In  the  third  bar,  the  word 
century  has  a  heavy,  followed  by  two  light  syllables.  The 
fourth  has  the  same  time,  in  syllable  and  in  pause  as  the  first. 
The  fifth  and  sixth  are  of  the  same  construction  as  the  second. 
The  seventh  has  one  light  accent,  and  a  pause  in  place  of  the 
heavy.  The  eighth  is  like  the  third.  The  ninth  and  twentieth, 
have  each  one  heavy  accent ;  for  each  syllable  being  a  pro- 
longable quantity,  the  time  may  be  extended  to  an  equality  with 
that  of  the  other  bars.  The  fourteenth  and  sixteenth  have,  like 
the  last-named,  a  heavy ;  but  wanting  the  light,  its  time  is  sup- 
plied by  a  pause :  since  the  short  quantity  of  these  words,  does 
not  allow  their  prolongation  to  the  full  time  of  a  bar.  The 
other  bars  are  only  repetitions  of  those  already  described.  If 
the  number  of  syllables,  included  within  the  bars,  is  so  many 
as  to  require  an  improper  precipitancy  of  utterance,  in  order  to 
make  the  time  of  the  sections  equal,  it  becomes  necessary  to  set 
a  line  before  the  light  syllables  of  that  precipitate  group,  and  a 
symbol  of  rest  in  the  place  of  the  heavy  or  accented  syllable. 
Thus  in  the  example,  we  might  put,  ]  century  of  the  \  in  one 
section ;  but  when  the  sentence  is  read  deliberately,  this  section 

this :  In  a  Des-po-tism,  the  go-vern-ment  prej's  up-on  the  peo-ple.  In  a  Re- 
pub-lic,  the  peo-ple  prey  up-on  the  go-vcrn-ment.  The  life-blood  is  drawn 
a-like  by  each.     In  one  case  by  the  Ea-gle ;  in  the  o-thcr  by  the  Rats. 


446  RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH. 

is  too  long.  It  is  better  ordered  in  the  example,  by  a  subdivi- 
sion, and  by  a  pause  in  the  place  of  an  accented  syllable.  With 
this  general  explanation,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Mr.  Steele's 
work,  for  a  more  particular  account  of  the  system.  Perhaps  I 
have  not  properly  marked  the  bars  of  this  sentence.  But  my 
purpose  being  only  to  illustrate,  others  may,  with  an  ear  of 
taste,  improve  the  reading  for  themselves.  It  seems  to  me  how- 
ever, and  the  remark  strongly  supports  the  system, —  that 
if  this  sentence  is  read  without  its  linear  divisions,  the  voice  is 
naturally  disposed  to  make  its  pauses,  in  those  very  places,  and 
of  that  duration,  which  is  visibly  indicated  by  the  system  of 
vertical  lines,  placed  before  the  accented  syllable,  and  of  the 
symbols  of  pauses,  both  in  the  light  and  heavy  parts  of  the  bar. 
Thus  showing  the  powers  of  analysis,  and  the  originality  of  the 
author. 

It  will  perhaps  be  asked  here,  what  is  the  meaning  of  these 
divisions  ?  And  what  useful  purpose  do  they  serve  in  instruc- 
tion ? 

All  the  works  on  elocution  before  the  time  of  Mr.  Steele, 
recommend  the  accurate  accentuation  of  words,  and  a  strict 
attention  to  their  separation,  at  the  proper  places  for  pausing. 
Mr.  Sheridan  indeed  has  given  a  notation  for  rhetorical  empha- 
sis, and  for  pause.  But  he  has  proposed  no  broad  rule,  to  direct 
the  pupil  in  the  use  of  accent.  The  importance  of  tire  subject 
in  our  early  schools,  may  be  learned  from  the  manner  in  which 
children  begin  to  read :  for  their  hesitating  utteraoce^  and  their 
close  attention  to  the  single  M'ord,  lead  them  to  lay  an  equal 
stress  on  every  syllable,  or  at  least  on  every  word.  This  habit 
continues  a  long  time  after  the  eye  has  acquired  a  facility  in 
following  up  discourse ;  and  in  some  cases  infects  pronunciation 
throughout  subsequent  life.  For  it  is  not  till  the  tongue  goes 
tripping,  or  rather  halting,  with  its  firm  and  its  tender  step 
on  words,  that  the  ear  becomes  sensible  of  the  use  and  beauty 
of  accent.  Mr.  Steele's  notation  having  a  symbol  for  the  de- 
grees of  stress, —  here  marked  by  an  italic  syllable, — presents  a 
visible  analogy  to  the  light  and  heavy  impression,  and  furnishes 
the  child  with  the  picture  of  his  lesson  on   accent,  and  with  a 


RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH.  447 

monitor  to  liis  ear.  I  do  not  say,  this  object  would  not  be 
attained,  in  a  degree,  by  employing  the  common  mark  of  stress 
on  all  accented  syllables.  But  even  this  is  never  done,  and  if 
it  were,  it  would  not  be  as  definite  as  the  conspicuous  division 
by  bars ;  nor  would  it  include  the  indication  of  pause,  together 
with  other  points  embraced  by  Mr.  Steele's  system. 

One  of  the  objects  of  a  scientific  institute  is,  to  point  out  what 
is  necessary  in  an  art,  even  though  it  should  not  be  able  to  direct 
the  exact  manner  of  executing  it :  and  perhaps  no  one  who  has 
looked  into  Mr.  Steele's  system  of  notation,  will  hesitate  to 
acknowledge,  it  has  set  the  subjects  of  accentuation  and  pause  in 
an  entirely  new  light  before  him. 

This  notation  will  not  indeed  inform  us  what  sjdlables  are  to 
be  accented  or  emphatic  ;  and  not  always,  where  the  pauses  are 
to  be  placed  :  but  it  will  enable  a  master,  who  knows  how  to 
order  all  these  things  in  speech,  to  furnish  his  scholar  with  a  visi- 
ble illustration  of  his  task.  If  a  boy  is  taught  by  this  method, 
he  acquires  a  habit  of  attention  to  the  subjects  of  accentuation 
and  pause,  that  may  be  readily  applied  in  ordinary  discourse. 

I  have  gladly  embraced  an  opportunity  to  notice  the  labors  of 
Mr.  Steele,  who  was  among  the  first  to  shriek-out  at  the  incubus 
of  ancient  prosody,  that  had  crouched  so  close  on  the  bosom  of 
his  own,  and  of  every  modern  language.  His  work  is  original, 
but  it  is  neither  full  nor  systematic ;  and  his  contradistinction  of 
what  he  calls  Poize,  from  the  functions  of  time  and  stress,  is  alto- 
gether notional  and  cloudy.  Notwithstanding  his  philosophic 
turn  for  really  hearing  speech,  he  seems,  on  the  subject  of  his 
light  and  heavy  Poize,  to  have  fallen  into  an  abstraction,  almost 
within  the  doctrine  of  '  Occult  causes.'  Still,  I  have  taken  this 
short  and  perhaps  unsatisfactory  view  of  a  part  of  his  essay, 
as  prefatory  to  the  few  following  remarks  on  the  subject  of 
rythmus.* 

The  Eythmus  of  language  is  produced  by  a  certain  order  of 

*  Mr.  Steele  first  published  bis  views,  under  the  title  cited  in  the  introduction 
to  this  essay.  A  few  years  afterwards  lie  gave  a  second  edition  of  his  work, 
with  the  title  of  '  Prosodia  Rationalis.'  This  last  has  very  little  addition  to  the 
former  print. 


448  RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH. 

accent,  quantity,  and  pause.  Or  in  other  words,  a  certain  suc- 
cession of  syllables,  having  different  degrees  of  stress,  or  of 
quantity ;  and  this  succession  being  divided  into  portions  by 
pauses,  constitutes  the  agreeable  impression  of  the  current  of 
speech,  called  Rythmus. 

There  are  two  methods  of  appl3nng  the  alternate  force  and 
remission  of  stress,  in  the  construction  of  rythmus.  One  pro- 
ceeds by  a  regular  repetition  of  the  same  order  of  accents :  as  in 
Versification.  The  other,  as  in  Prose,  has  no  formal  arrange- 
ment of  its  strong  and  weak,  or  long  and  short  syllables.  The 
doctrine  of  the  order  of  syllables  in  verse  constitutes  what  is 
called  Prosody.  This  subject  having  been  ably  treated  by 
authors,  and  being  beyond  the  design  of  this  essay,  we  here  pass 
it  by,  with  the  remark,  that  if  English  prosodists  would  listen  to 
their  own  language,  when  they  undertake  to  regulate  it,  and 
forget  what  the  old  grammarians  have  said  upon  the  subject 
of  Time,  which,  there  are  some  reasons  for  believing,  they 
themselves  did  not  fully  understand,  their  science  would  be  more 
intelligible,  and  their  rules  of  practice  more  useful  to  the 
student. 

Though  the  broad  distinction  between  prose  and  verse  con- 
sists in  the  more  irregular  sequence  of  accent  and  quantity  in 
the  former :  still  they  seem  to  compromise  their  differences  to  a 
certain  degree,  in  their  respective  attempts  at  excellence.  For 
the  best  poetic  rythmus  is  that  which  admits  occasional  devia- 
tions from  the  current  of  accentuation :  but  these  deviations 
do  not  continue  long  enough  to  destroy  the  general  character 
of  regularity ;  the  order  returning  before  the  ear  has  forgotten 
its  previous  impression.  Prose,  on  the  other  hand,  is  constantly 
showing  the  beginning  of  a  regular  rythmus :  but  before  any 
series  of  accent  or  quantity  has  time  to  impress  the  ear  with  its 
method,  the  cross-purpose  of  a  new  succession  destroys  the  order 
of  incipient  versification. 

The  sources  of  variety,  beauty,  and  force,  in  rythmus  may  be 
learned  from  the  following  general  view  of  its  construction. 

In  ordinary  pronunciation  there  may  be  several  successive 
monosyllabic-words  marked  by  the  abrupt  accent.     In  this  case 


RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH.  449 

there  is  necessarily  a  momentary  pause  between  them  :  or  there 
may  be 'an  accented  syllable  folio-wed  by  one  or  more,  but  not 
exceeding  six  unaccented  ;  the  average  proportion  being  about 
one  accented  syllable  to  three  unaccented.  Hence  it  appears  that 
the  divisions,  included  between  the  vertical  lines  of  Mr.  Steele's 
notation,  called  here,  accentual  sections,  may  consist  of  from 
one  to  five  syllables,  and  with  considerable  care  and  skill  in 
the  effort,  sometimes  of  six.  Consequently,  if  a  rythmus  were 
formed  on  the  function  of  accent  alone,  a  series  of  .these  dif- 
ferently constituted  sections,  would  furnish  the  ground-work  for 
considerable  variety.  Thus  in  the  above  example,  the  sections 
consist  of  from  one  to  five  syllables,  for  the  third  and  fourth 
may  be  thrown  together  by  omitting  the  bar  and  the  pause, 
without  at  all  obscuring  the  sense  ;  and  these  sections  being 
arranged  in  varied  succession,  is  one  of  the  causes  of  the  agree- 
able rythmus  of  that  sentence. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  now  admit  that  the  ear  is  as  strongly 
attracted  by  quantity  as  by  stress.  When,  therefore,  these  two 
functions  are  combined,  the  means  of  variety  are  multiplied. 
In  the  following  sentence,  slightly  altered  from  Gibbon,  I  have 
marked  in  italics  those  syllables  which  make  an  impression 
by  their  quantity,  and  thus  add  dignity  to  the  varied  accentual 
rythmus. 

The  masters  of  the  fairest  and  most  wealthy  climates  of  the  globe,  turn'd 
•ffith  contempt  from  gloomy  hills,  assaiVd  by  the  wintery  tempest,  from  lakes 
couceaVd  in  mist,  and  from  cold  and  lonelij  heaths,  over  which  the  deer  of  the 
forest  were  chased  by  a  troop  of  naked  barbarians. 

Besides  the  variety  and  impressiveness  thus  arising  from 
stress  and  quantity,  the  rythmic  effect  may  be  further  diver- 
sified by  including  one  or  more  accentual  sections  Avithin  the 
boundary  of  pauses.  If  the  useful  economy  of  the  term,  may 
be  allowed,  let  us  call  the  portions  of  discourse  so  formed, 
Pausal  sections.  They  may  consist  of  a  single  word  :  but  the 
structure  of  style,  and  ease  of  utterance,  rarely  admit  of  their 
containing  more  than  twenty  syllables.  In  the  following  exam- 
ple the  pausal  sections  are  included  between  the  upright  lines, 


450  RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH. 

tliat  the  order  and  variety  of  the  succession  may  be  surveyed 
by  the  eye.  The  lines  designate  only  the  place  of  the'  pause, 
in  clear  and  impressive  reading,  without  denoting  its  several 
durations. 

It  is  gone  |  that  sensibility  of  principle  |  that  chastity  of  honor  |  ■which 
felt  a  stain  |  like  a  wound  |  which  inspired  courage  |  whilst  it  mitigated 
ferocity  |  which  ennobled  whatever  it  touched  |  and  under  which  |  vice 
itself   I   lost   I    half  its  evil    |    by  losing  all  its  grossness.    |  * 

The  agreeable  effect  of  variety  in  the  pausal  sections,  will 
perhaps  be  more  conspicuous  by  contrasting  it  with  the  mo- 
notony of  the  antithetic  style.  The  following  sentence  exhibits, 
not  the  art,  but  the  artifice  of  rhetorical  construction. 

"When  ]>took  the  first  survey  of  my  undertaking  |  I  found  our  speech  [ 
copious  I  without  order  |  and  energetic  |  without  rules  |  wherever  I 
turned  my  view  |  there  was  perplexity  |  to  be  disentangled  |  and  con- 
fusion to  be  regulated  |  choice  was  to  be  made  |  out  of  boundless  variety  | 
without  any  established  principle  of  selection  |  adulterations  were  to  be 
detected  |  without  any  settled  test  of  purity  |  and  modes  of  expression  |  to 
be  rejected  or  received  |  without  the  suffrages  of  any  writers  of  classical 
reputation    |    or  acknowledged  authority.    | 

Such  a  measuring  process,  if  used  occasionally,  may  give 
variety  to  discourse.  When  made  the  characteristic  of  com- 
position, it  indicates  formality  of  car,  makes  mere  arithmetic 
of  speech,  and  obscures  the  strong  lines  of  verbal  delineation. 
There  seems  too,  to  be  a  want  of  dignity  in  this  kind  of  ryth- 
mus;  and  those  who  affect  it,  scarcely  perceive  how  nearly 
they  approach  to  the  principle  of  the  ludicrous:  for  when  its 
features  are  slightly  surcharged  by  caricature,  it  really  becomes 
so.  The  principle  is  that  of  a  resemblance  in  sound,  with  a 
difference  in  sense.  The  similarity  in  the  number  of  words, 
together  with  the  like  places  of  their  accents,  and  the  equal 

*  The  manner  in  which  lost,   here   forms  by   itself,   a  pausal    section,   is 
exemplified  in  Mr.  Steele's  method  of  notation :  [  Vice    it  |  self     "|  |  lost     "[  \ 
half  its   I  e  vil.  |    A  good  reader  would  pronounce   this  clause,  with  emphasis 
on  lost,  and  a  pause  before  and  after  it:    thus  according  with  Mr.  Steele's 
principles  of  Accentual  division. 


RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH.  45I 

count  of  syllables,  under  which  it  has  sometimes  been  the 
fashion,  to  set  forth  the  strongest  antithesis  in  ideas  or  sen- 
timents, has  not  exactly  the  contrasted  imagery  of  a  pun,  but 
it  reminds  me  of  it. 

The  monotonous  effect  of  a  series  of  similar  pausal  sections, 
is  conspicuous  in  the  following  example  from  the  poems  of  Ossian. 
It  is  however,  fair  to  remark,  that  as  there  are  but  two  trisyllabic 
words  in  the  extract,  and  not  one  polysyllable,  the  defect  of 
variety  in  accent  and  remission  must  be  taken  into  account,  with 
the  faults  of  its  rythmus. 

And  is  the  son  of  Semo  fallen  ?  |  mournful  are  Tura's  walls.   |  Sorrow  dwells 
at  Dunscai.    |   Thy  spouse  is  left  alone  in  her  youth.    |    The  son  of  thy  love  is 
iiloue !    I     He  shall  come  to  Bragela,    |    and  ask  why  she  weeps  ?    |    He  shall 
lift  his  eyes  to  the  wall,    |    and  see  his  father's  sword.    |   Whose  sword  is  that? 
I  he  will  say.    |    The  soul  of  his  mother  is  sad.    |    Who  is  that,    ]  like  the  hart 
of  the  desert,    |  in  the  murmur  of  his  course?    |    His  eyes  look  wildly  round   | 
in  search  of  his  friend.    [   Conal    |  son  of  Colgar    |    where  hast  thou  been    | 
when  the  mighty  fell?    |    Did  the  seas  of  Cogorma  roll  round  thee?    |    Was  the 
wind  of  the  south  in  thy  sails  ?    |    The  mighty  have  fallen  in  battle,    |    and  thou 
wast  not  there.    |    Let  none  tell  it  in  Selma,    |   nor  in  Morven's  woody  land.    | 
Fingal  will  be  sad,    |    and  the  sons  of  the  desert   |    mourn. 

The  pausal  sections  are  nearly  all  of  equal  length,  and  this 
cause,  together  with  the  frequent  occurrence  of  the  cadence, 
produces  the  wearisome  character  of  the  rythmus.  Doctor 
Johnson  once  said,  there  were  many  men,  and  women,  and  chil- 
dren in  Britain,  who  could  write  such  poems  as  those  ascribed  to 
Ossian.  I  have  too  many  agreeable  and  grateful  recollections 
of  Scotland,  to  quarrel  with  her  partiality,  if  she  has  any,  on 
this  point ;  but  surely,  there  is  not  a  Roscius  who  can  read  them. 
We  have  indeed  a  vast  fund  for  variety,  in  the  constituents  of 
speech ;  but  we  may  doubt  their  sufficiency  to  meet  the  demands 
of  this  composition,  without  transgressing  the  rules  of  a  just 
and  expressive  intonation.  In  short  the  passage,  like  many 
others  by  better  poets,  cannot  be  read  with  satisfaction,  before 
the  judgment  of  a  discerning  ear. 

Let  us  compare  the  preceding  extract  with  the  first  few  lines 
of  Burke's  episode  on  the  Queen  of  France :  which  in  elegance, 


452  RYTHMUS  OF  SPEECH. 

variety,  and  impressiveness  of  mere  rythmus,  and  exclusive  of 
some  hyperbole  and  rhetorical  ostentation,  is  not  surpassed  in 
the  English  language. 

That  both  the  accentual  and  the  pausal  sections  may  be  gra- 
phically made,  they  are  here  presented  under  Mr.  Steele's 
notation,  as  scored  by  Dr.  Barber  in  his  '  Exercises  in  Reading 
and  Recitation :'  omitting  the  symbols  for  the  light  and  heavy 
accent. 

7  It  is  I  now,  I  sixteen  or  ]  seventeen  |  years  ]  7  since  I  |  saw  the  queen 
of   I  France,  7  |    then  the    |    Dauphiness,    |  7  at  Ver    |    sailles :  |  7    7  |  7  and 

I    surely   |    never   |    lighted  on  this    |    orb,    |  7   which  she  |    hardly    |  seemed 
to    I  touch,  7  j  7  a  I   more  de    |    lightful    |   vision.    |  7     7  |  7    7  |  7     I  |    saw 
her   I  just  a   |    bove  the  ho    |   rizon,    |  7     7  |    decorating  and   |    cheering   | 
7     the  I    elevated   |    sphere    |  7    she  |  just  be    |    gan  to    |   move  in:    |  7     7  | 
glittering   |  7    like  the  |   morning    |    star ;    |  7     7  |    full  of  |   life,    7  |  7   and 

I    splendor,    |  7     and  |  joy.    | 

Oh !  j  what  a  |  revo  |  lution !  1  7  7  |  7  and  |  what  a  |  heart  7  | 
must  I  I  have,  |  7  to  con  |  template  |  7  with  |  out  e  |  motion,  |  that 
7  I  7   ele  I   vation   |  7  .and  |    that  7  |   fall.    | 

The  agreeable  effect  of  this  rythmus  may  be  traced  to  the 
following  causes. 

First.  The  alphabetic  elements  are  varied  throughout :  and 
except  the  repetition  of  sound  in  teen  and  in  the  words  lighted 
and  delightful,  cheering  and  sphere,  they  do  not  press  upon  each 
other. 

Second.  The  words  have  from  one  to  four  syllables ;  and 
these  are  finely  alternated  with  each  other.  The  accentual  sec- 
tions vary  from  one  to  five  syllables  in  extent. 

Third-  The  Pausal  sections  consist  of  from  two  syllables 
to  ten;  and  their  different  lengths  are  intermingled  in  suces- 
sion. 

Fourth.  The  effect  is  still  further  varied,  by  an  occasional 
coincidence  of  the  temporal  accent  with  that  of  stress :  and  the 
dignity  and  force  of  the  phraseology  is  hightened,  by  the 
occurrence  of  these  long  syllabic  quantities,  at  the  several  pauses : 
as  in  the  words — years,  Yersailles,  orh,  horizon,  sphere,  move, 
star,  joy,  and  fall. 


RHYTHMUS   OF  SPEECH.  453 

Fifth.  The  order  of  the  rythmus  has  just  enough  regularity 
to  produce  the  smooth  effect  of  verse,  without  allowing  the  reader 
to  anticipate  any  subsequent  measure. 

The  only  exception  to  be  made  to  the  commendation  of  this 
extract,  is  produced  by  the  consecutive  accents  at  its  termina- 
tion. A  spondaic  cadence,  where  the  accents  or  quantities  are 
equal  and  full,  if  not  designed  for  some  extraordinary  case  of 
expression,  or  for  variety  in  a  series  of  short  sentences,  is  always, 
to  me  at  least,  both  awkward  and  unmanageable. 

The  instances  of  rythmus  given  above,  are  from  prose-com- 
position of  elevated  sentiment,  and  style.  But  the  plainest 
phraseology  may  be  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  same 
rules  of  accent,  quantity,  and  pause.  From  the  pen  of  a 
person  of  fine  rythmic  perception,  even  a  letter  of  business, 
with  its  enumeration  of  particulars,  may  flow  with  graceful 
variety,  and  terminate  with  impressive  satisfaction  to  th6  ear. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  a  further  detail  on  the  subject  of 
rythmus.  Much  might  be  said  in  illustration  of  its  powers  and 
beauties,  both  as  existing  in  the  current  of  discourse  and  in  the 
conspicuous  place  of  the  pause.  But  we  leave  this  to  the  Rheto- 
ricians. 


454  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 


SECTION  LI. 

Of  the  Faults  of  Headers. 

It  is  a  prevailing  opinion,  that  persons  who  speak  their  own 
sentiments,  in  social  intercourse,  always  speak  properly :  and 
that  transferring  this  natural  manner,  as  it  is  called,  to  formal 
reading,  must  insure  to  it,  this  required  natural  propriety. 

This  idea  has  arisen  from  ignorance  of  the  functions  which  con- 
stitute the  beauties  and  deformities  of  speech.  Without  a  know- 
ledge of  causes  and  effects,  on  these  points,  teachers  have  been 
obliged  to  refer  to  the  spontaneous  efforts  of  the  voice,  as  the 
only  assistant  means  of  instruction.  Setting  aside  here,  the 
question,  whether  we  dare  to  say,  what  the  right  or  natural  man- 
ner is,  before  we  know  the  principles  that  make  it  so;  we  will 
admit  that  the  natural  manner,  from  our  being  accustomed  to  it, 
and  having  perhaps  a  sort  of  fellow  feeling  with  its  faults,  is 
less  exceptionable  than  the  first  attempts  of  the  pupil  in  reading ; 
still  the  faults  of  ordinary  conversation  are  similar  to  those  of 
reading,  though  they  are  less  apparent.  Perhaps  the  common 
opinion  is  grounded  on  a  belief,  that  a  just  execution  must 
necessarily  follow  a  full  understanding  of  the  sense,  and  a  true 
feeling  of  the  sentiment  of  discourse ;  for  these  are  supposed  to 
accompany  colloquial  speech.  No  one  indeed  can  read  correctly, 
or  with  elegance,  if  he  does  not  both  understand  and  feel  what 
he  utters :  but  these  are  not  exclusively  the  means  of  success. 

There  must  be  knowledge,  derived  from  peeping  behind  the 
curtain  of  actual  vocal  deformitj'  still  hanging  before  the  just  and 
beautiful  laws  of  speech :  and  there  must  be  an  organic  faculty, 
well  prepared  in  the  school  of  those  laws,  for  the  expression 
of  thouglit  and  feeling.  Were  it  certain  that  this  pretended 
natural  manner  truly  represents  the  design  of  nature,  in  her 
system  of  vocal  expression,  we  would  no  more  require  an  art  of 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  455 

elocution,  than  an  Art  of  Breathing :  and  the  whole  world,  in 
Reading  and  Speaking,  as  in  the  act  of  respiration,  would  have 
accomplished  its  purposes,  with  a  like  instinctive  perfection. 
But  far  from  such  uniformity,  there  are  wide  and  almost  infinite 
differences,  in  what  now  pass  for  the  proprieties,  as  well  as  in  the 
acknowledged  faults,  of  speech.  The  elocutionist's  natural  man- 
ner is  not,  therefore,  the  original  ordination  of  nature.  It  would 
seem,  that  in  the  early  and  unknown  history  of  progressive  man, 
he  must,  from  the  perversity  attendant  on  his  ignorance,  have 
learned  to  Act  and  to  Govern  viciously,  before  he  had  learned  to 
act  and  to  govern  wisely  and  well.  Man's  whole  executive  pur- 
poses are  directed  by  his  thoughts  and  feelings  ;  the  same  agents 
that  direct  his  speech :  and  as  far  as  history  inforins  us,  the  just 
designs  of  nature,  in  his  moral,  his  political,  and  his  vocal  con- 
dition, were  found  to  be  already  crossed  or  perverted,  when  he 
first  began  to  look  into  her  laws,  and  to  turn  an  eye  of  philo- 
sophic inquiry  upon  himself. 

The  self-prompted  efforts  of  speech  do  indeed,  exhibit  in  some 
instances,  proprieties  of  emphasis  and  intonation  ;  but  these  pro- 
prieties, like  every  purposed  act  without  its  rule,  being  but  the 
occasional  result  of  a  narrow  design,  cannot  have  a  generality 
necessary  for  a  directive  system  of  elocution  ;  and  will  be  very 
far  from  satisfactory  to  the  ear  of  a  refined  and  educated  taste. 

There  may  likewise  be  a  wide  difference,  between  the  capa- 
bility of  a  voice  in  its  colloquial  use,  and  of  the  same  voice  when 
exerted  in  a  formal  attempt  to  read.  Mr.  Rice,  in  his  "  Intro- 
duction to  the  Art  of  Reading,"  refers  to  persons,  who  had  been 
known  to  speak  with  great  energy  and  propriety,  those  very 
words,  which,  being  taken  down  and  shown  to  them  in  writing 
or  print,  they  were  unable,  without  great  difiiculty,  and  after 
repeated  trials,  to  pronounce  in  the  precise  tone  and  manner  in 
which  they  had  previously  uttered  them.  Supposing  they  did 
Bfeak  with  propriety,  which  the  art  has  never  yet  furnished  the 
means  of  knowing :  there  seems,  in  such  cases,  to  be  no  want  of 
energy  of  mind  or  feeling,  nor  of  flexibility  in  the  voice.  But 
when  discourse,  embracing  sense  and  sentiment,  is  read,  even  by 
its  author,  the  occupation  of  the  eye  distracts  attention  from  the 


456  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

meaning,  or  permits  it  to  be  fully  recognized,  only  wlien  shown 
upon  a  single  point.  If  that  meaning  is  to  be  gathered  from 
several  words,  the  necessary  forerunning  and  retrospection  of 
the  eye,  render  the  proper  management  of  the  voice  impractica- 
ble to  those  who  have  not,  by  long  exercise  in  the  art  of  read- 
ing, acquired  a  facility  in  catching  the  sense  of  discourse, 
together  with  an  almost  involuntary  habit  of  associating  the 
proper  form  of  vocal  expression,  with  its  corresponding  thought 
and  feeling. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  the  difficulty  of  reading 
well,  faults  of  all  degrees  and  kinds  do  prevail  in  the  art. 
Having  therefore  prepared  the  way  for  a  history  of  these 
faults,  by  describing  what  appear  to  be  the  precise  and  elegant 
uses  of  the  constituents  of  speech,  I  shall  endeavor  to  point 
out  the  most  common  deviations  from  the  principles,  on  which 
I  have  presumed  to  found  our  system  of  Propriety  and  Taste. 

He  who  undertakes  to  note  the  defects  of  an  art,  must  carry 
with  his  censure,  a  knowledge  of  its  perfections.  Faults  are, 
every  where,  but  relative  to  merits :  and  in  elocution,  they  are 
the  misplacing  only  of  those  forms  of  expression  which  con- 
stitute its  beauties:  for  some  of  the  finest  colors  of  the  art 
are  dipped  from  the  very  sources  of  its  faults.  He  who  de- 
clares his  perception  of  blemishes  in  an  art,  and  yet  cannot  at 
the  same  time  define  and  enumerate  its  beauties,  speaks  with- 
out candor,  or  as  the  dupe  of  authority.  Let  us  then  try  to 
perform  these  inseparable  duties,  by  giving  the  ^outline  of  a 
just  and  elegant  elocution,  with  a  particular  enumeration  of 
its  faults. 

While  investigating  the  phenomena,  and  regarding  the  uses 
of  speech,  I  have  always  endeavored  to  keep  in  view  the  purest 
and  most  elevated  designs  of  taste.  It  will  be  little  more  than 
recapitulation  therefore  to  say,  the  faultless  reader  should 
possess,  for  various  occasions,  all  the  qualities  of  voice  from 
the  full  laryngeal  bass  of  the  orotund,  to  the  lighter  and  lip- 
issuing  sound  of  daily  conversation.  He  should  give  dis- 
tinctively that  pronunciation  of  single  elements  and  their  aggre- 
gates, both  as  to  quantity  and  accent,  which  accords  with  the 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  457 

habitual  perceptions  of  his  audience.  His  plain  melody  should 
be  diatonic,  and  varied  in  radical  pitch,  beyond  discoverable 
monotony.  His  simple  concrete  should  be  equable  in  the  rise, 
and  in  the  diminution  of  its  vanish.  His  tremor  should  be 
under  full  command  for  occasions  of  grief  and  exultation.  Ob- 
servation and  judgment  must  have  settled  for  him,  the  places 
and  degrees  of  emphasis  ;  and  a  knowledge  of  its  many  forms, 
must  have  suggested  the  choice  of  them,  for  variety  and  ex- 
pression. He  should  be  able  to  prolong  his  voice  through 
every  extent  of  quantity,  in  the  wave,  and  in  every  concrete 
interval  of  the  rising  and  the  falling  scale.  He  must  have 
learned  to  put  off  from  the  dignified  occasions  of  reading, 
everything  like  that  canting  or  affected  intonation  which  the 
artful  courtesies  and  sacrificing  servilities  of  life  too  often  con- 
firm into  habit;  and  to  avoid  in  his  interrogations  the  keenness 
and  excesses  of  the  vulgar  tongue.  He  should  have  too  for 
this,  as  for  every  other  Fine  Art,  a  delicate  sense  of  the 
Sublime,  the  Graceful,  and  the  Ridiculous.  A  quick  percep- 
tion of  the  last  is  absolutely  necessary,  to  guard  the  exalted 
works  of  taste,  asrainst  an  accidental  occurrence  of  its 
causes. 

It  may  perhaps  be  considered  presumptuous,  thus  to  propose 
rules  of  criticism  in  the  Art  of  speaking.  Before  the  analytic 
development  of  the  nature  of  speech,  this  could  not  have  been 
done:  and  the  attempt  would  have  been  one  of  folly  as  well 
as  presumption.  We  have  now  ascertained  the  constituents 
of  vocal  expression,  sufiiciently  at  least,  to  advance  some  steps 
towards  a  system :  and  it  seems  no  undue  anticipation  of  what 
must  hereafter  form  the  great  purpose  in  the  schools  of  elocu- 
tion, to  suggest  such  a  use  of  these  constituents,  as  may  satisfy 
the  cultivated  ear. 

If,  however,  any  supposed  presumption  should  require  apo- 
logy, or  justification,  let  me  here  say  a  word  on  the  system 
I  have  offered;  and  on  the  manner  and  means  of  its  pro- 
duction. 

In  embracing  the  opportunity  of  investigating  the  nature  of 
the  human  voice,  which  others  equally,  and  perhaps  better  quali- 
30 


458  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

fied  had  suffered  to  pass  by,  I  brought  to  the  inquiry,  some 
natural  facility  of  ear,  and  some  acquired  knowledge  of  the 
science  and  practice  of  music.  On  taking-up  the  general  idea 
of  the  concrete  movement,  -where  the  Ancients  had  left  it,  and 
thereupon,  tracing  an  identity  between  certain  constituent  func- 
tions of  speech,  and  of  music ;  the  train  of  investigation  soon 
led  to  a  discovery,  that  the  individual  vocal  constituents  of 
speech,  like  those  of  music,  are  comparatively  few.  This  at 
once  unfolded  the  whole  mystery;  for  the  delusions  of  that 
mystery  were  the  result,  of  a  belief  either  in  the  occult  and 
inscrutable  nature  of  the  constituents  of  intonation,  or  in  the 
infinite  complication  of  their  aggregates ;  and  this  unquestioned 
belief  had  deafened  all  perception  of  their  individuality.  By 
resolving  these  aggregates  into  distinguishable  individuals,  it 
brought  their  assignable  number  and  nature,  within  the  discrimi- 
native power  of  observation.  The  greatest  diflficulty  was  now 
overcome ;  for  by  an  unobscured  perception  of  the  individual,  it 
was  easy  to  make  out  the  relationship  between  a  sentiment  and 
its  vocal  sign.  AVith  this  knowledge,  obtained  through  my  own 
experimental  illustration,  I  turned  to  the  uncorrupted  instincts 
of  nature,  in  children  and  in  inferior  animals,  for  instances  of 
passionate  expression ;  and  to  common  life,  as  well  as  to  tlie 
eminent  elocution  of  the  stage,  for  the  various  usages  of  speech. 
The  power  of  tracing  the  individual  functions  in  these  instances, 
and  of  recognizing  their  single  and  combined  effects,  brought  me 
to  the  belief,  that  the  system  here  proposed,  has  its  Origin  and 
its  Confirmation  in  Nature ;  and  is  therefore  well  adapted,  by 
its  analysis,  to  gratify  the  lover  of  truth,  and  by  the  practical 
uses  founded  upon  it,  to  contribute  to  the  pleasures  of  an  en- 
lightened taste. 

While  developing  the  system  of  physical  causation,  I  was 
led  to  perceive  a  wise  conformity  of  the  vocal  means,  to  the 
expressive  ends  of  speech :  and  to  remark  therein,  at  least  the 
reasonableness  of  the  system,  if  I  did  not  dare  to  draw  from 
the  idea  of  such  final  causation,  any  confirmative  evidence  of 
its  truth.  In  our  preceding  history,  a  broad  and  important  dis- 
tinction is  made,  between  the  vocal  functions,  representing  simple 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  459 

narrative  and  thought,  and  those  expressive  of  sentiment  and 
passion.  To  one  division,  we  allotted  the  second  and  its  plain 
diatonic  melody.  To  the  other,  the  semitone,  -with  the  wider 
intervals,  and  waves :  manifest  differences  in  the  vocal  means, 
being  thus  definitely  accommodated  to  manifest  differences  be- 
tween thought  and  sentiment.  On  the  ground  of  this  reasonable 
appropriation  of  different  means  to  a  different  end,  it  is  conclu- 
sive, that  the  rule  of  rules, —  nowhere,  and  never  forgotten  by 
Nature, —  this  Rule  of  Fitness,  being  unknown  in  the  uses  of 
hitonation,  must  be  constantly  violated  by  speakers:  that  a 
iirrent  melody  of  thirds,  or  fifths,  or  wider  waves,  must  coun- 
teract the  Final  Cause  of  Nature,  in  allotting  a  different  vocal 
expression  respectively  to  sentiment  and  to  thought;  confound 
her  intended  contradistinctions ;  prevent  the  repose  of  the  car 
on  the  unimpassioned  diatonic ;  and  wear  out  its  excitability  to 
the  emphatic  power  of  wider  intervals,  when  required  for  occa- 
sional purposes  of  vivid  expression. 

There  is  another  consideration,  to  justify  the  establishment  of  a 
system  of  some  kind,  if  it  should  not  plead  for  the  one  Avhich  has 
])een  offered.  When  the  constituents  of  expression  are  described 
and  known,  the  precision  of  their  use  must  become  an  object  of 
attention  and  criticism  with  an  audience.  If  there  be  an  ad- 
mitted rule  for  their  employment,  the  representation  of  thought 
and  sentiment,  will  be  more  uniform,  and  therefore  more  clear 
and  impressive.  When  we  vary  and  confound  the  appropriate 
meaning  of  the  vocal  signs,  we  may  come  in  time,  to  destroy, — 
and  even  with  the  aid  of  the  verbal  sign,  must  always  weaken  — 
the  force  of  expression.  If  we  constantly  whine  in  the  chro- 
matic melody,  or  cry  out  emphatically  in  the  wider  intervals 
and  in  the  wave,  to  no  purpose  of  complaint  or  surprise,  we 
shall  in  vain  seek  for  sympathy,  when  the  wolf  of  feeling  in 
reality  seizes  upon  us. 

In  looking  for  a  Rule  of  excellence  in  the  art  of  elocution, 
we  are  always  referred,  as  in  the  other  fine  arts,  to  Nature.  But 
nature,  when  shut  out  from  the  clear  light  of  analytic  demon- 
stration, is  a  deceptive  pattern  ;  and  seems  here,  as  in  so  many 
other  cases,  to  be  no  more  than  the  omniform  parent  of  secta- 


460  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

rian  opinions ;  for,  like  Liberty  vihh.  a  patriot,  Experience  with 
a  physician,  Right  with  a  moralist,  and  Orthodoxy  with  a  bigot, 
she  shows  as  many  faces  as  there  are  self-deceiving  tongues  that 
take  her  name  in  vain.  If  nature,  the  deformed  instinct  of 
human  nature,  I  mean,  is  to  be  the  canon,  it  must  be,  by  the 
single  instances  she  produces :  for  if  her  excellencies  are  scat- 
tered throughout  the  species,  it  is  Art  that  must  collect  them. 
But  where  is  the  instance  in  this  nature,  worthy  of  imitation  ? 
Is  it  to  be  found  in  the  drawl  of  the  spiritless  ?  In  the  snappish 
stress  of  the  petulcnt  ?  The  short  quantity  and  precipitate 
time  of  the  frivolous  ?  In  the  continued  diatonic  of  the  satur- 
nine V  Or  the  eternal  whine  of  the  unhappy  ?  Is  it  in  the 
canting  drift  of  the  passion-masking  hypocrite  ;  or  in  the  efibrts 
of  those  morbid  sensibilities,  Avhich  live  upon  exaggeration  ? 
Shall  we  look  for  it  in  the  daiiy-changing  and  mincing  aflfccta- 
tions  of  the  Fashionable  Foolish ;  or  in  the  thousand  contrarieties 
of  National  accent,  quantity,  and  intonation,  yet  each  in  pride 
and  ignorance,  self-aright '(  Shall  we  find  this  nature's  paragon, 
in  the  chatterings  of  the  great  market  of  life,  that  hurries 
through  its  melody,  denies  itself  the  repose  of  the  cadence,  and 
in  uproar  after  rank  and  poAver,  and  bidding  for  its  bargains  of 
office  or  notoriety,  strains  itself  to  its  hoarsest  note? 

These  are  the  individual  instances  of  vocal  deformity  pre- 
sented by  Nature,  with  sacrilege  so  called,  and  daily  sufiered 
to  pass  without  remark,  because  we  are  engaged  at  the  moment 
with  other  thoughts  and  designs :  and  which  we  perceive  only 
when  the  voice  itself,  as  a  subject  of  taste,  is  the  exclusive 
object  of  reflective  and  discriminating  attention. 

But  though  nature,  still  holding  her  regards  over  the  wayward 
errors  of  the  human  voice,  may  not,  under  its  corruptions,  deign 
to  show  us  a  single  instance  of  the  fitness  and  beauty  of  her  laws, 
she  has,  as  an  indication  of  her  means  for  j)erfecting  the  vocal 
powers  of  the  individual,  diffused  throughout  the  species,  all  the 
constituents  of  that  perfection.  A  description  of  the  true  cha- 
racter and  purpose  of  these  constituents,  and  the  gathering-in 
of  their  scattered  proprieties  and  beauties,  furnish  the  full  and 
choicest   pattern  of   Imitable-Nature ;    which,  reduced    to  an 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  4.QI 

orderly  system  of  precept  and  example,  constitutes  the — Art 
of  Elocution. 

The  Canon,  so  called,  of  statuary  in  Greece,  which  represented 
no  singly-existing  form,  but  which  was  said  to  contain  within  the 
Rule  of  its  Design,  all  the  master-principles  of  the  Art,  was  the 
deliberate  work  of  Genius,  Time,  and  careful  Experiment  on  the 
Eye,  in  the  very  method  of  reflective  and  discriminating  Selec- 
tion, we  here  claim  for  Elocution ;  and  was  finished  at  last,  by 
Polycletus,  only  after  previous  ages  of  successive  improvement. 
If  individual  nature  might  be  taken  as  a  model  in  the  arts,  we 
should  not  at  this  late  day  be  so  often  obliged  to  listen  to  bad 
readers ;  nor  to  hear  such  clashing  opinions,  upon  those  who 
pass  for  the  best.  The  productions  of  taste  would  have  forerun 
their  present  needed  cultivation;  and  in  reverse  of  the  tedious 
growth  of  centuries,  would  like  the  garden  of  Eden,  have  been 
ripe  at  their  planting. 

The  masters  in  Elocution,  not  perceiving  that  the  Art  of 
■peaking- well  is  One,  in  the  Fellowship  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and 
not  drawing  from  their  common  fund  of  abstract  principles,  the 
precepts  that  might  be  applicable  to  their  own,  have  sometimes 
varied  their  old  and  imperfect  rule  of  teaching  by  Imitation,  to 
something  like  the  system  of  nature,  as  they  think,  by  requiring 
their  pupil,  not  to  imitate  another,  but  figuratively  as  it  were,  to 
imitate  himself.  Imagine  yourself,  says  the  master,  to  be  de- 
livering the  sentiments  of  an  author  as  if  they  were  your  own. 

Now  such  a  direction,  in  assuming  to  be  a  rule  for  attaining  a 
proper  and  approved  elocution,  only  requires  a  pupil  to  speak  as 
ho  pleases;  that  is,  as  his  own  particular  sentiments  prompt 
him ;  for  by  the  direction,  he  is  to  make  the  sentiments  of  the 
author  his  own.  At  best  then,  the  rule  would  lead  a  class  of  a 
thousand  pupils,  in  seeking  a  general  precept  for  these  adopted 
sentiments,  to  discover,  that  there  must  be  a  thousand  diftcrcnt 
precepts  ;  since  each  must  speak  by  his  own.  In  short,  it  is  an 
unnecessary  direction  by  an  unthinking  master.  For  no  one 
can  read  well,  except  he  docs  spontaneously  read  as  if  the  senti- 
ments were  his  own ;  thus  showing  the  superfluity  at  least  of 
directing  him  to  make  the  sentiments  his  own,  in  order  to  read 


462  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Tvell.  And  again,  the  pupil  who  cannot  understand  the  plain 
verbal  signs  of  another's  sentiments,  would  he  very  likely  to 
mistake  the  vocal  signs  of  those  he  might  try  to  make  his  own. 
Let  us  however,  suppose, —  this  rule  of  Self-Imitation  might 
serve  for  common-place  thoughts,  on  everyday  occasions. 

On  the  other  hand,  suppose  the  art  of  reading  to  he  exerted 
in  representing  the  utmost  force  and  delicacy  of  dramatic  cha- 
racter, and  of  imaginative  creation  hy  a  poet.  How  will  the 
rule  of  substitution  meet  this  case  ?  I  have  more  than  once 
seen,  on  the  Stage,  the  pitiable  result  of  what  was  designed  to 
be  an  imitation  of  nature :  an  imitation  of  nature,  without  a 
knowledge  of  her  constitution  and  laws;  a  constitution,  co-eval 
with  the  period  of  human  progress  into  speech. 

All  the  Fine  Arts  are  essentially  Arts,  each  the  oflfspring  of 
a  noble  alliance  between  Knowledo-e  and  Grenius :  the  hiffh 
accomplishment  of  the  work  by  the  Artist,  and  the  reflective 
enjoj^ment  of  its  truth  and  beauty  by  the  Votary,  being  purely 
the  result  of  close  observation,  extensive  compjirison,  enlight- 
ened choice,  and  harmonized  combination  of  the  scattered 
constituents  of  propriety,  unity,  expression,  grandeur  and  grace. 

Many  of  the  faults  of  speakers  arise  from  their  being  taught 
by  imitation  alone.  As  long  as  there  has  been  a  history  of  the 
Stage,  so  long.  Actors  have  been  classed  in  the  school  of  some 
predecessor,  or  some  cotemporary  master.  But  inasmuch  as 
there  is  always  one,  who  by  chance  or  by  merit  is  the  Leading 
Spirit  of  the  'lustrum,' — for  where  there  are  no  rules  of  choice, 
even  five  years  is  a  long  life  for  fashionable  fame, —  it  generally 
happens  that  his  faults  may  be  recognized  throughout  a  crowd 
of  pupils  and  imitators.  From  the  Want  of  some  definite  cor- 
rective, the  bad  reading  of  a  Pulpit  sometimes  infects  a  whole 
class  of  students ;  who  circumscribe  the  active  benefits  of  their 
master's  solemn  instruction,  by  taking  up  his  sinful  elocution. 

It  may  be  said — If  we  establish  a  system  of  principles,  all 
readers  must  be  of  one  school ;  and  this  will  be  equivalent  to 
imitation.  There  would  be  one  school ;  a  school  of  acknowledged 
and  permanent  precept,  with  a  similarity  in  its  excellence,  not 
in  its  defects.      Many  actors  who  differ  from  each  other  in  their 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  453 

faults,  yet  give  occasional  short  sentences  -with  identical  pro- 
priety, without  exciting  a  remark  on  that  identity.  It  is  only 
upon  some  imitated  outrage  of  utterance,  that  wc  hear  in  a 
moment  the  whispered  name  of  a  prototype,  from  twenty  parts 
of  a  theatre.  Serious  imitations  of  distinguished  Actors  and 
Speakers,  like  gay  mimickries  of  them,  are  generally  made  on 
peculiar  pronunciation,  monotony,  unpleasant  quality  of  voice, 
peculiar  forms  of  melody,  whining,  false  cadence,  or  no  cadence 
at  all,  and  precipitate  and  unaccountable  transitions.* 

But,  enough  of  argument  on  this  subject.  The  art  of  Elocu- 
tion has  never  yet,  by  system  or  rule,  reached  that  consum- 
mation, which  in  analogy  with  the  abstract  delineation  of  Form, 
may  be  called,  the  Ideal  Beauty  of  Speech.  The  mere  instinct 
of  individuals,  has  been  for  each  and  all,  the  universal  guide  ; 
and  the  best  management  of  the  voice  has,  under  so  poor  a 
master,  far-fallen  short  of  effective  means  for  the  highest  oral 
excellence :  while  the  common  herd  of  pretenders  afford  both 
shocking  and  endless  examples  of  deformity  and  error. 

It  is  not  the  intention  here,  to  speak  of  the  constitutional 
defects  of  the  voice.      It  is  difficult,  however,  to  draw  a  distinc- 

*  Strange,  indeed !  that  such  faults  should  be  found  among  distinguished 
Actors  and  Speakers.     But  I  write  from  observation  ;  having  heard  them  all . 

The  celebrated ,  who  had  a  grating  and  uutuneful  quality  of  voice, 

and  whose  elocution  as  I  recollect  it,  was  affected  and  monotonous,  in  a  formal 
melody  of  wider  intervals  and  waves,  with  an  occasional  minor  third  in  em- 
phatic places,  used,  after  some  of  the  Older  Poets,  to  pronounce,  Avhen  nobody 
else  did,  the  plural  of  ache,  as  two  syllables,  to  the  unseasonable  merriment  of 
all  who  heard  him.  The  use  of  the  minor  third  however,  was  not  peculiar  to 
him,  but  seems  to  have  been  a  vocal  tradition,  still  kept  up  among  the  English. 
The  Quakers,  particularly  their  women,  in  public  preaching,  employ  it  to  an 
extravagant  degree ;  and,  from  the  incorrigible  character  of  all  sectarianism, 
probably  had  it  in  the  time  of  Fox ;  whose  followers  may  have  derived  it  through 
the  earlier  Protestants,  from  some  awkward  imitation  of  chanting,  in  the 
Catholic-service.  It  is  not  uncommon,  in  private  life,  even  with  women  of  the 
higher  classes,  in  England;  and  very  common  on  the  stage.  We  often  hear  it  in 
Actors  as  well  as  Actresses  who  come  over  to  us.  We  had  some  years  ago,  one 
of  the  latter,  whose  intonation  was  almost  a  melody  of  minor  thirds.  As  long 
as  she  lasted,  it  was  thought  very  fine ;  and  was  imitated  by  many  American 
theatric  Misses.  Its  character  was  so  remarkable,  that  it  was  a  subject  of 
mimickry  for  every  shop-girl  with  a  good  car,  who  heard  it. 


464  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

tion  on  this  subject.  Too  many  of  the  willful  vices  of  life, 
through  self-delusion,  pass  for  misfortunes :  and  it  can  scarcely 
be  made  a  question,  whether  the  impudent  display  of  even 
natural  failings  should  not  shut  out  the  subject  from  indulgent 
commiseration. 

There  are  three  points,  of  the  first  importance  to  a  speaker : 
and  if  deficiencies  therein  are  not  to  be  called  misfortunes,  we 
may  rank  them  as  great  and  generic  faults.  I  mean  the  defects 
of  the  Mind,  of  the  Ear,  and  of  Industry. 

Speech  is  intended  to  be  the  sign  of  every  variety  of  thought 
and  feeling.  If  therefore  the  mind  of  a  scholar  be  not  raised  to 
that  generality  of  condition,  which  can  assume  all  the  charac- 
ters of  expression,  he  will  in  vain  aspire  to  great  eminence  in 
the  art.  If  his  mind  is  endued  only  with  the  diplomatic  virtue 
of  unruffled  caution :  if  it  is  of  that  character  which  compli- 
ments its  own  dulness  by  calling  energy  violence,  and  drawls 
out  in  reprobation  at  the  vivid  language  of  truth:  if  all  its 
busy  goings  are  but  around  the  little  circle  of  its  own  selfish 
schemes  :  if  it  has  yet  to  hear,  and  never  can  be  convinced,  that 
success  in  every  art  is  not  more  indebted  to  the  plans  of  sagacity, 
than  to  the  perseverance  of  passion :  if  the  mind,  I  repeat  it,  is 
of  such  a  cast,  its  possessor  may  perhaps  by  his  assiduity,  satisfy 
his  own  uncircumspect  judgment  and  taste,  but  he  can  never 
reach  the  highest  accomplishments  in  elocution. 

In  speaking  of  the  mental  requisites  for  good  reading,  we 
must  not  overlook  our  frequent  neglect  to  discriminate  between 
Strong  feelings,  and  Delicate  ones.  The  latter  make  the  full 
and  finished  Actor ;  and  it  is  unfortunate  for  his  art,  that  en- 
dowments, which  under  proper  cultivation  insure  success,  are 
generally  united  with  a  modesty  that  retires  from  the  places  and 
occasions  for  displaying  its  merits :  while  the  former  in  reaching 
but  the  coarse  energy  of  the  passions,  are  able  to  figure  on  the 
stage,  only  as  the  outrageous  Herod,  the  brazen  Beatrice,  and 
the  Buffoon. 

The  mind,  with  its  comprehensive  and  refined  discriminations, 
must  furnish  the  design  of  elocution :  the  ear  must  watch  over 
the  lines  and  coloring  of  its  expression. 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  455 

An  ability  to  measure  nicely  the  time,  force,  and  pitch  of 
sounds,  is  indispensable  to  the  higher  excellencies  of  speech. 
It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  of  the  musical  ear,  properly 
so  called,  is  the  result  of  cultivation.  There  is  ho^yever  a  -wide 
difference  even  in  the  earliest  aptitudes  of  this  organ ;  and 
though  the  means  of  improvement  derived  from  analysis  will 
hereafter  increase  the  proportional  number  of  good  readers,  and 
produce  something  like  an  equality  among  them,  still  the  pos- 
session of  a  musical  ear  must,  with  other  requisites,  always  give 
a  superiority. 

I  have  more  than  once  in  this  essay,  urged  the  importance  of 
Industry,  the  third  general  means  for  success.  Neglect  on  this 
point  may  be  considered  ^s  an  egregious  fault  in  a  speaker :  and 
it  certainly  is  the  most  culpable.  It  is  here  placed  on  high 
ground,  along  with  mental  susceptibility  and  delicacy  of  ear, 
those  essentials  which  have  been  designated  by  the  indefinite 
term  '  genius.'  In  vain  will  the  mind  furnish  its  finest  discrimi- 
nations, or  the  ear  be  ready  with  its  measurements,  if  the  tongue 
should  not  contribute  its  persevering  industry.  By  a  figure  of 
speech  that  took  a  part  for  the  whole  of  the  senses,  a  happy 
penalty  upon  mankind,  as  it  was  early  written,  doomed  the 
taste  to  be  gratified  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow.  The  ear  too, 
can  receive  its  full  measure  of  delight,  only  through  the  long 
labor  of  the  voice. 

The  faults  of  speakers  are  of  endless  variety :  but  if  I  have  told 
the  luliole  truths  they  embrace  no  mode  or  form  of  voice,  here 
unnamed.  It  seems  as  if  nature  had  assumed,  in  her  adjusted 
system  of  the  voice,  all  its  available  signs.  The  worldly  tongue, 
with  his  corrupting  habit,  in  deforming  this  all-perfect  gift,  makes 
no  addition  to  its  constituents,  but  performs  his  part  in  human 
error,  by  misplacing  them.  In  the  present  history  of  the  faults 
of  speech,  we  may  therefore  pursue  something  like  the  order, 
more  than  once,  given  to  our  subject. 

Four  of  the  general  heads,  under  which  we  considered  the 
Modes  of  the  voice,  are  Quality,  Time,  Force  and  Pitch. 

Of  Faults  in  Quality.  This  subject  is  so  well  known,  both  in 
the  art  and  in  common  criticisim,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  be 


466  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

particular  upon  it.  Harshness  or  roughness  is  one  of  the  dis- 
agreeable qualities  of  the  voice.  The  nasal  is  still  more  offen- 
sive. Shrillness  may  rather  be  called  a  quality  than  a  state  of 
?itch.  It  never  has  dignity.  It  seems  like  a  mockery  of  the 
voice  :  and  though  it  is  heard  remotely,  and  draws  attention,  it 
does  it  ■with  the  attraction  of  a  caricature.  The  huskiness  of 
aspiration  is  more  apt  to  be  united  with  the  orotund  voice.  It 
does  not  indeed  diminish  its  gravity  and  sober  grandeur,  but  it 
affects  the  fulness  and  clearness  of  its  vocality. 

The  falsetto  occasionally  exists  as  a  current  quality  of  the 
voice.  We  sometimes  hear  persons  on  the  stage,  in  the  senate, 
and  in  the  pulpit,  who  offend  with  the  falsette  only  occasionally, 
by  the  melody  breaking  from  the  natural  voice,  on  a  single 
syllable.  Every  speaker  has  a  falsette ;  and  the  skillful  can 
always  guard  against  its  improper  use.  As  a  fault,  it  results 
either  from  the  narrow  compass  of  the  natural  voice,  or  from  a 
defect  of  ear  in  the  speaker :  for  not  having  an  accurate  percep- 
tion of  his  approach  to  it,  he  is  unable  to  avoid  the  evil,  by  a 
ready  descent  of  intonation. 

The  falsette  is  common  in  the  voices  of  women.  It  has  with 
them  a  plaintive  character :'  and  the  melody  at  this  high  pitch  is 
apt  to  be  monotonous. 

Of  Faults  in  Time.  It  is  not  meant  to  treat  here,  of  what  is 
called  reading  too  fast  or  too  slow.  There  is  nothing  new  to  be 
said  on  this  point.  But  we  who  speak  English  are  said,  by  the 
report  of  the  compilers  of  Greek  and  of  Latin  grammars,  to 
know  nothing  of  quantity,  and  to  have  none  in  our  language. 
That  bad  readers,  and  persons  who  will  not  learn  their  own 
tongue,  may  know  nothing  of  its  quantity,  is  readily  granted ; 
but,  that  it  is  an  essential  part  of  every  language,  and  the 
neglect  of  it  a  source  of  many  faults  in  ours,  must  be  admitted 
by  those  who  know  the  nature  of  syllabic  time,  and  the  proper 
use  of  the  voice. 

There  are  two  faults  in  quantity.  It  may  be  too  long  or  too 
short.  When  sentiments  requiring  short  time,  such  as  gaiety 
and  anger,  are  expressed  by  long  quantity,  it  produces  the  vice 
of  Drawling.     This  drawling  may  go  through  its  excessive  quan- 


I 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  ^q'j 

tity,  either  as  a  wave  of  the  second,  or  an  equal  or  unequal  Avave 
of  wider  intervals,  or  as  the  note  of  Song. 

When  deliberate  or  solemn  discourse  is  hurried  over  in  short 
syllabic  quantity,  the  fault  is  no  less  apparent  and  offensive. 
This  defect  in  reading,  is  by  far  the  most  common ;  and  it  has 
been  said,  more  than  once,  in  this  essay,  because  it  is  well  to 
rouse  the  English  ear  to  this  subject,  that  the  command  over 
time  in  the  pure  and  equable  concrete  of  speech,  is  found  only 
in  speakers  of  fervent  feeling  and  long  experience.  Such  per- 
sons instinctively  acquire  the  use  of  extended  quantity ;  as  it 
is  through  long  syllables,  most  of  their  earnest  expression  is 
effected.  It  is  from  ignorance  of  this  fact,  that  some  speakers, 
neglecting  the  variety  and  smoothness  of  the  temporal  emphasis, 
give  prominence  to  important  syllables  only  by  the  hammering 
of  stress. 

Of  Faults  in  Force.  The  misapplication  of  the  degrees  of 
the  piano  and  forte,  to  the  general  current  of  discourse  is  suffi- 
ciently obvious.  But  in  the  various  forms  of  syllabic  stress,  the 
faults  of  speech  have  been  less  observed,  and  consequently  less 
avoided. 

Many  speakers,  from  a  difficulty  in  commanding  the  variations 
in  quantity,  execute  most  of  their  emphasis  in  the  form  of  force  ; 
yet  even  in  this  apparently  simple  effort,  they  are  not  free  from 
faults.  Some  persons,  after  the  manner  of  the  Irish,  employ 
the  vanishing  stress  on  all  emphatic  syllables.  This  has  its 
meaning  in  expression,  but  it  is  misplaced,  except  on  the  occa- 
sions formerly  pointed  out.  A  want  of  the  sharp  and  abrupt 
character  of  the  radical  is  not  an  uncommon  fault.  It  occurs 
generally  in  the  dull  and  indolent :  for  nothing  shows  so  clearly, 
the  elastic  temper  of  the  voice  and  mind,  as  the  ability  to 
explode  suddenly  this  initial  stress. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  go  into  a  notice  of  the  faults  of  em- 
phasis, in  the  common  acceptation  of  the  term.  They  all  resolve 
into  a  want  of  true  apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  reader. 
Through  ignorance  of  other  constituents  of  an  enlarged  and 
definite  elocution,  which  our  present  inquiry  has  taught  us  to 
appreciate  and  to  apply,  this  well  known  subject  of  stress-laying 


468  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

emphasis,  has  always  been  of  the  first  importance,  in  the  art 
of  reading ;  and  within  the  school  of  imitation,  has  restrictively 
assumed  the  very  name  of  the  art  itself.  '  How  admirably  she 
reach,''  said  a  thoughtless  critic,  of  an  actress,  who,  with  perhaps 
a  proper  emphasis  of  Force,  was  nevertheless,  deforming  her 
part,  by  every  fault  of  Time  and  Intonation.  The  critic  was 
one  of  those  who  having  neither  knowledge  nor  docility,  de- 
served neither  argument  nor  correction.  Emphasis  of  stress 
being  almost  the  only  branch  of  the  art  in  which  there  is  an 
approach  towards  a  rule  of  instruction,  this  single  function,  by 
a  figure  of  speech  grounded  on  its  solitary  importance,  is  taken, 
in  the  limited  nomenclature  of  criticism,  for  the  whole  book  of 
the  art.  Even  Mr.  Kemble,  whose  eulogy  should  have  been 
founded  on  whatever  other  merits  he  may  have  possessed,  made 
the  first  stir  of  his  fame,  if  we  have  not  been  misinformed,  by  a 
new  'readiog,'  that  is,  by  a  new  application  of  stress,  to  some 
words  in  Hamlet. 

We  have  awarded  to  the  emphasis  of  stress  its  due,  but  not 
its  undue  degree  of  consequence :  and  perhaps  it  may  be  here- 
after admitted,  that  much  of  the  contention  about  certain  unim- 
portant points  of  this  stress-laying  emphasis,  and  of  pause,  has 
arisen  from  critics  finding  very  little  else  of  the  vast  compass  of 
speech,  on  which  they  were  able  to  form  for  themselves  a  dis- 
criminative opinion.  When,  under  a  scientific  institute  of 
elocution,  we  shall  have  more  important  matters  to  study,  and 
delight  in,  we  may  perhaps  find  much  of  this  trifling  lore  of 
italic  notation,  now  serving  to  keep  up  contention  in  a  daily 
gazette,  will  be  quite  overlooked,  in  the  high  court  of  philosophic 
criticism.* 

*  Some  one,  of  those  who  like  to  make  business  in  an  art,  rather  than  to  do 
it,  has  raised  a  question  whether  the  following  lines  from  Macbeth,  should  be 
read  with  a  pause  at  banners  or  at  walls : 

Mac.         Hang  out  our  banners  on  the  outward  walls 
The  cry  is  still,  They  come. 

To  those  whoso  elocution  consists  in  such  riddles,  we  propose  the  following 
from  Goldsmith : 

A  man  he  was,  to  all  the  country  dear. 
And  passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year. 


FAULTS  OF  KEADERS.  469 

We  may  pass  by  the  faults  of  pronunciation,  depending  on 
misplaced  accents.  Propriety  in  this  matter  is  set  forth  in  the 
dictionary,  and  the  errors  of  speech  may  be  measured  by  its 
rules. 

It  is  not  within  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  notice  the  faults 
of  speakers,  in  the  pronunciation  of  the  alphabetic  elements. 
Criticism  should  be  modest  on  this  point,  till  it  has  the  sense 
or  independence  to  give  to  the  literal  symbols  of  those  elements, 
and  to  their  uses  in  orthography,  more  of  the  appearance  of  a 
work  of  wisdom,  than  they  have  ever  received  in  any  written 
language :  till  the  pardonable  variety  of  pronunciation,  and  the 
true  and  natural  spelling  by  the  vulgar,  have  satirized  into 
reformation,  that  scholastic  pen-craft  which  keeps  up  the  difiS- 
culties  of  orthography  for  no  other  pm-pose,  as  it  would  seem, 
than  to  pride  itself,  in  the  use  on  a  troublesome  and  awkward 
system,  as  a  criterion  of  education. 

Of  Faults  in  Pitch  Speech  has  been,  especially,  one  of 
those  subjects,  in  which  we  often  pronounce  upon  the  right  and 
the  wrong,  without  being  able  to  say  why  they  are  so.  If  we 
have  resolved  the  obscurity  in  respect  to  the  proprieties  of  into- 
nation ;  it  will  not  be  difficult  on  similar  principles,  to  give  some 
explanation  of  its  faults. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Concrete  3IoveDnent.  I  have  more  than  once 
spoken  of  that  peculiar  characteristic  of  speech,  the  full  open- 
ing, the  gradual  decrease,  and  the  delicate  termination  of  the 
concrete.  Now,  as  this  structure  is  destroyed  by  the  use  both 
of  the  vanishing  and  the  thorough  stress,  it  follows  that  their 
misplaced  application  must  be  regarded  as  a  fault.  The  vanish- 
ing stress,  exemplified  in  the  upward  jerk  of  Irish  pronunciation, 
produces  a  peculiar  monotony,  when  continued  throughout  dis- 
course: while  the  thorough  stress,  if  not  used  for  especial 
emphasis,  or  designed  incivility,  is  a  striking  and  a  vulgar  fault. 
Every  one  must  be  familiar  with  what  is  called  a  coarse  and 

Now  let  them  guess  variously,  or  sharply  dispute,  upon  the  question  of  apply- 
ing an  emphasis  on  passing,  or  on  rich ;  thereby  to  determine  cither  that  the 
good  Village  Parson  yi&s  passing  or  superlatively  rich,  with  his  forty  pounds ;  or 
that  he  passed  among  his  parishioners,  as  only  very  well-oflf  in  the  world. 


470  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

unmannerly  tone.  This,  as  regards  the  structure  of  the  con- 
crete, was  formerly  shown,  to  be  the  effect  of  the  thorough  stress. 
Some  readers  seem  incapable  of  carrying  on  a  long  quantity 
through  the  equable  concrete ;  substituting  in  place  of  it,  the 
note  of  song.  The  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  speech- 
singing,  is  that  of  the  public  preaching  of  the  Friends,  to  be 
particularly  described  among  the  faults  in  melody. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Semitone.  Who  has  not  heard  of  whining  ? 
It  is  the  misplaced  use  of  the  semitone.  The  semitone  is  the 
language  of  tenderness,  petition,  complaint,  and  doubtful  sup- 
plication :  but  never  of  manly  confidence,  and  the  authoritative 
self-reliance  of  truth.  It  is  this  which  betrays  the  sycophant, 
and  even  the  crafty  hypocrite  himself.  They  assume  a  plaintive 
persuasion,  or  a  tuneful  cant,  not  merely  to  imply, —  they  are 
prompted  by  a  kind  and  affectionate  spirit,  but  sometimes  because 
they  unconsciously  distrust  or  despise  themselves,  and  are  there- 
fore governed  by  the  feeling  of  weakness  or  servility :  Suspicion 
should  therefore  be  awake,  when  the  show  of  truth  or  benevolence 
is  proffered  under  this  cringing  intonation :  and  in  general, 
whenever  the  semitone  is  used  for  sentiments  that  do  not  call 
for  it. 

The  chromatic  melody  is  more  common  among  women.  Ac- 
tresses are  prone  to  this  fault;  and  it  is  one  of  the  causes  which 
frequently  prevent  their  assuming  the  matron-?-oZe  of  tragedy, 
and  the  dignified  severity  of  epic  reading.  They  sometimes 
intercede,  threaten,  complain,  smile,  and  call  the  footman,  all 
in  the  minor  third  or  the  semitone.  They  can  vow,  and  love,  and 
burst  into  agony  in  Belvidera ;  but  cannot  with  masculine  per- 
sonation and  diatonic  energy,  '  chastise  with  the  valor  of  their 
tongue,'  and  gravely  order  the  scheme  of  murder  in  Lady  Mac- 
beth. 

The  sentiments  signified  by  the  semitone,  have  been  enumerated. 
Whenever  it  supplants  the  proper  diatonic  melody,  it  becomes  a 
fault,  and  begins  to  be  monotonous ;  for  when  appropriate  it 
never  is  so.  I  once  heard  the  part  of  Dr.  Cantwell,  in  the 
Hypocrite,  played  in  the  chromatic  melody  throughout.  Per- 
haps it  suited  the  pretensions  of  the  pious  villain,  but  it  certainly 


l 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  4^1 

was  a  palling  monotony  to  the  ear ;  and  the  want  of  transition, 
when  he  threw  oflF  the  mask,  in  addressing  his  patron's  wife, 
was  remarkable.  He  was  the  righteous  knave  and  the  passionate 
lover,  all  in  the  same  intonation.  On  the  whole,  the  effect  would 
have  been  more  agreeable,  if  an  abated,  slow,  and  monotonous 
drift  of  the  second  had  prevailed,  Avith  the  use  of  the  chromatic 
melody,  when  required  by  the  sentiment. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Second.  The  ear  has  its  green  as  well  as 
the  eye ;  and  the  interval  of  the  second  in  current  and  elegant 
speech,  like  the  verdure  of  the  earth,  is  wisely  designed,  to 
relieve  sensation  from  the  fatiguing  stimulus  of  more  vivid  im- 
pressions. Though  the  diatonic  melody,  is  the  predominating 
hue  of  a  well  composed  elocution,  is  simple  and  unobtrusive,  and 
thus  affords  a  fine  ground  for  bringing  out  the  contrasted  color 
of  more  expressive  intervals ;  it  does,  when  continued  into  the 
place  of  this  wider  intonation,  assume  a  positive  character,  under 
the  form  of  a  fault. 

The  most  striking  instance  of  a  misapplication  of  the  second, 
is  its  employment  for  the  sentiments  which  properly  require  the 
semitone.  There  are  persons  of  such  a  frigid  temperament,  or 
with  such  inflexible  organs,  even  when  the  feeling  does  not  appear 
to  be  wanting,  that  they  seem  incapable,  under  ordinary  motives, 
of  executing  the  chromatic  melody.  Pain,  or  the  excitement  of 
their  selfish  instincts  may  naturally  force  them  to  it.  But  in  them 
it  seems  to  be  so  slightly  associated  with  tenderness  of  feeling,  or 
so  much  beyond  the  limit  of  the  will,  that  the  most  pathetic  pas- 
sages are  given  in  the  comparatively  phlegmatic  intonation  of 
the  diatonic  melody.  We  sometimes  see  an  Actor  of  such  a 
temperament,  on  the  emergencies  of  a  night,  cast  to  the  part  of 
a  lover:  and  may  occasionally  hear  from  the  pulpit,  fervent 
appeals  of  the  Litany,  and  humble  petitions  of  extemporary 
prayer,  uttered  with  an  intonation,  more  appropriate  to  the  task 
of  repeating  the  multiplication  table. 

Some  persons  are  so  bound  to  the  monotony  of  the  second,  for 
when  even  this  interval  is  over-used  and  thus  misplaced,  it  has 
the  effect  of  monotony,  that  we  are  sometimes  more  indebted  to 
grammatical  construction,  than  to  the  voice,  for  a  perception  of 


472  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

their  interrogations.  It  is  the  same  too  with  their  emphasis,  in 
those  conditional  and  positive  sentences  which,  for  impressive 
and  varied  effect,  respectively  require  the  rising,  and  the  falling 
interval  of  the  third,  or  fifth,  or  octave. 

One  of  the  most  impoi'tant  functions  of  the  second,  is  its 
agency  in  the  formation  of  melody.  It  was  shown  in  the  eighth 
section,  that  the  best  effect  of  the  diatonic  arrangement  is  pro- 
duced by  a  varied  composition  of  the  seven  phrases.  We  have 
now  to  learn  how  far  the  common  practice  of  readers,  deviates 
from  the  described,  but  perhaps  as  yet  only  described,  perfection 
of  a  pure  diatonic  melody. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Melody  of  Speech.  If  the  rule  laid  down 
in  this  essay,  for  constructing  an  agreeable  succession  of  diatonic 
phrases,  is  strictly  directed  by  propriety,  and  taste,  I  must  by 
that  rule  declare,  I  have  never  yet  heard  a  speaker  with  a  well 
arranged,  and  satisfactory  melody.  Players  spend  their  time 
before  mirrors,  till  grace  of  person  is  studied  into  mannerism, 
and  expression  of  feature  distorted  into  grimace.  Emphasis  of 
stress  too,  is  teased  in  experiment,  through  every  word  of  a 
sentence,  and  tested  in  authority,  by  all  the  traditions  of  the 
Green-Room :  but  who  has  ever  thought  of  any  assignable  rules 
for  the  successions  of  syllabic  pitch,  in  a  cuiTcnt .  melody,  or 
imagined  therein,  the  existence  of  faults ! 

The  First  fault  to  be  noticed,  is  the  continued  use  of  the 
monotone,  on  the  same  line  of  radical  pitch ;  the  vanish  of  the 
second  or  of  wider  intervals,  being  properly  performed.  I  do 
not  here  mean  the  drawl  of  the  parish  clerk,  nor  the  monotony 
of  the  reading-clerk  of  most  public  assemblies ;  for  these  are  some- 
times the  note  of  song,  and  will  be  spoken-of  presently.  The 
unvaried  line  of  radical  pitch,  now  under  consideration,  is  not 
so  glaring  as  this  old  conventicle  tune,  nor  has  it  at  all  the 
character  of  song.  If  the  reader  were  near  me,  I  would  illus- 
trate the  nature  of  this  fault.  But  I  can  only  describe  it,  as 
preventing  the  agreeable  effect,  arising  from  the  contrast  of 
pitch  in  the  falling  ditonc;  the  transition  in  this  case  being 
from  a  feeble  vanish  to  a  full  radical,  only  one  tone  below,  while 
in  the  varied  ditonc-succession,  the  distance  is  two  tones  below 
the  summit  of  that  vanish. 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  4^3 

One  of  the  causes  of  this  fault  m  public  speakers,  deserves  to 
be  noticed  here.  I  spoke  of  vociferation  as  a  means  fur  impart- 
ing vigor  and  fulness  to  the  voice.  But  this  exercise  being  on  a 
high  pitch,  sometimes  tends  to  corrupt  the  style  of  Melody. 
Speakers  who  address  large  assemblies,  and  who  have  not  that 
clear  vocality  and  distinct  articulation  which  produce  the  requi- 
site reach  of  voice,  generally  attempt  to  remedy  the  defect,  bv 
rising  to  the  utmost  limit  of  the  natural  compass ;  and  thus  hold 
th6ir  current  just  below  the  falsette.  For  fear  of  breaking  into 
this,  they  dare  not  vary  the  melody  by  taking  their  pitch  alter- 
nately higher :  and  a  desire  to  preserve  the  diffusive  effect  of 
shrillness,  prevents  their  descending  by  radical  change.  They 
consequently  continue  on  one  monotonous  line  near  the  falsette  j 
and  thus  vitiate  their  taste  by  the  partial  pleas  of  their  own 
example ;  restrain  their  melodial  flexibility ;  and  blunt  their 
perception  of  the  variety  of  movement  in  a  more  reduced  current 
of  pitch.* 

Second.  Melody  is  deformed  by  a  predominance  of  the  phrase 
of  the  monotone,  together  with  a  full  cadence  at  every  pause. 
This  perhaps  is  only  found  in  the  first  attempts  at  reading  by 
children  and  rustics. 

TJdrd.  By  a  mingling  of  the  phrases  of  melody,  but  with  a 
formal  return  of  the  same  successions.  In  this  case,  the  whole 
discourse  is  subdivided  into  sections,  resembhng  each  other  in 
the  order  of  pitch.  These  sections  consist  of  entire  sentences, 
or  of  their  members.  And  it  may  here  be  remarked,  that  this 
peculiar  habit  of  the  voice  and  car,  in  dividing  the  melody  into 
sections,  as  well  as  in  forming  accentual  and  pausal  divisions,  has 
a  very  close  connection  with  the  rhetorical  character  of  style. 
It  certainly  cannot  have  escaped  observation,  that  there  is  a 
tendency  in  some  persons  to  give  equahty  to  the  length  of  their 

•  This  cause  operates  on  the  enthusiasts  of  the  Tulpit ;  on  many  of  the 
speakers,  and  always  on  the  clerk  of  the  Lower  House  of  the  American  Con- 
gress ;  where  the  demands  of  the  space  to  be  filled,  and  of  the  echoing  uproar 
to  be  overcome,  exceed  the  common  powers  of  the  voice :  but  it  is  most  con- 
spicuous in  the  mouth  of  the  Demagogue,  whose  own  political  purposes  lead, 
him  to  address  great  crowds  in  the  open  air. 

31 


T 

r 


474  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

sentences ;  and  this  is  in  many  instances  dependent  on  their 
elocution.  But  the  niceties  of  this  subject  will  receive  due  con- 
sideration, at  some  future  time ;  when  we  who  speak  English 
shall,  through  observation  and  independence,  take  upon  us  to 
deny,  that  the  best  method  for  studying  our  own  language,  is 
through  the  Syntax  and  Prosody  of  the  Latin  and  the  Greek. 

There  is  no  uniform  fault  in  melody  among  speakers ;  each 
one  falls  into  a  habit  of  his  own  :  though  it  is  plain,  from  the 
very  method  of  the  diatonic  construction,  there  can  be  no  great 
variety.  All  Actors,  except  that  very  limited  first  class,  and 
they  are  not  as  finished  on  this  point  as  they  may  be  hereafter, 
all  Actors  I  say,  are  prone  to  this  bird-like  kind  of  intonation. 
They  have  a  short  run  of  melody,  which  if  not  forcibly  inter- 
rupted by  some  peculiar  expression,  is  constantly  recurring. 
The  return  forms  a  kind  of  melodial  measure :  and  I  now  call 
to  mind  an  Actress  of  great  repute,  whose  intonation  was  filled 
with  emphasis  of  thirds,  fifths,  octaves,  and  waves ;  and  whose 
sections  of  melody  could  be  anticipated,  with  something  like  the 
forerunning  of  the  mind  over  the  rythmus  of  a  common  stanza 
of  alternate  versification.  Those  who  commit  this  fault,  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  and  correcting  it,  if  desirable, 
when  the  mirror  of  full  and  exact  description  is  held  before 
them. 

The  monotonous  effect  of  a  repetition  of  these  similar  melodial 
sections,  constitutes  one  of  the  signs  by  which  the  smart  appren- 
tices of  the  pit,  and  some  of  their  better-dressed  peers  in  the 
boxes,  distinguish  the  voices  of  famous  Actors,  and  think  they 
represent  their  real  points  of  excellence,  when  they  mimick  only 
what  is  strongly  offensive  and  worthless.  In  this  fault,  the 
recurring  structure  of  the  melody  might  in  itself,  consist  of  a 
proper  succession  of  phrases :  but  you  hear  it  too  often  and  re- 
member it  too  well.  The  whole  current  in  this  case,  figuratively 
resembles  the  old  Roman  Festoon,  which  however  well  composed 
for  insulated  tablets,  was  in  abasement  of  Greek  architectural 
taste,  joined  in  monotonous  repetition  around  the  frieze ;  instead 
of  representing,  as  a  just  melody  might,  the  idea  of  that  successive 
variety  in  severe  simplicity  and  expressive  design,  which  adorned 
the  metopes  of  the  Parthenon. 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  475 

Fourth.  I  have  known  more  than  one  speaker  with  this  fault. 
Sentences  are  begun  aloud  on  a  high  pitch,  and  ended  with  a 
low  and  almost  inaudible  voice :  and  so  continued  successively 
throughout  a  whole  discourse :  thus  producing  a  monotony,  simi- 
lar to  that  last  described.     It  would  be  difficult  to  find  out  the 
meaning  of  this  fault,  or  to  discover  such  a  shadow  of  apology 
Jfor  it,  as  many  worse  offences  in  life  might  claim  for  themselves. 
One  of  the  persons,  addicted  to  this  monstrous  piece  of  affecta- 
tion, for  no  natural  or  conventional  motive  could    ever  have 
suggested  it,  was,  first  by  himself,  we  presume,  and  then  by  the 
associates  of  his  long  since  departed  day  of  popularity,  called 
'a  fine  reader.'     Such  instances  of  fame  may  serve  to  convince 
us,  that  with  all  our  blind  conceits, —  and  who  among  us  is  with- 
out them?  —  there  is  no  art  in  which  self-imposition  is  more 
conspicuous   than  in   that  of  Elocution.      Where  there  is  no 
acknowledged    rule    of  excellence,    every    individual,    whether 
cultivated  or  not,  makes  his  own  judgment  and  taste  the  stan- 
dard.    Having  learned  that  it  is  the  part  of  a  good  reader  to 
represent  the  sense  and  sentiment  of  discourse,  and  as  each  in 
his  attempt,  does  fulfill  his  own  conception  of  an  author,  he  is 
self-persuaded,  he  possesses  the  full  power  of  the  art.     Hence, 
one  reason  why  we  find  bo  much  delusion  on  this  subject.     For, 
reputed  '  good  readers,'  are  often  not  merely  negatively  deficient ; 
they  are  often  positively  bad :  and  perverse  as  it  may  seem,  to 
the  overbearing  applauses  of  a  majority,  I  have  frequently  gone  to 
learn  the/aM/f«  of  speakers,  when  called  to  hear  some  'star'  of 
elocution,  even  though  that  star  was  himself  a  Teacher  of  the 
Art.     Loud  whoops,  and  yells,  seem  to  have  always  been  the 
vocal  delight  of  savages ;  so  an    exaggerated  and  consequently 
striking  character  of  the  constituents  of  speech,  is  always  most 
agreeable  to  the  uninstructed  ear. 

Fijth.  We  have  learned  the  manner  of  changing  the  pitch 
from  one  degree  to  another,  above  or  below  it,  in  the  diatonic 
melody.  Some  persons  find  it  difficult  to  change  the  radical  in 
this  manner.  This  not  only  takes  from  the  variety  of  utterance, 
but  embarrasses  a  reader  in  passing  from  a  very  high  or  very  low 
pitch,  when  he  has  improperly  set  out  in  either.      Speakers 


476  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

sometimes  descend  so  far,  as  to  leave  no  voice  below  tlic  line  of 
current  melody,  to  allow  an  audible  execution  of  the  last  con- 
stituent of  the  cadence.  In  this  case,  they  are  conscious  of  tbe 
feeble  and  unsatisfactory  effect  of  their  intonation  without  per- 
ceiving the  cause  of  it,  and  being  able  to  apply  the  remedy.  A 
knowledge  of  the  proper  mclodial  progression,  and  of  the  degrees 
through  which  the  cadence  descends,  will  enable  the  reader  ta 
avoid  the  fault  here  pointed  out. 

We  noticed  formerly  the  circumstance  of  a  reader,  with  a 
good  ear,  having  a  sort  of  procursive  perception  of  the  falsette, 
sufficient  to  enable  him  to  turn  from  it,  when  his  melody  is 
moving  near  the  summit  of  his  natural  voice.  The  same  kind 
of  anticipation  of  the  lowest  note,  enables  such  a  reader  to  keep 
his  cadence  within  the  limit  of  distinct  articulation. 

Sixth.  The  use  of  the  protracted  radical  and  vanish,  instead 
of  the  equable  concrete,  is  one  of  the  widest  deviations  from  the 
characteristic  of  speech.  For  a  proper  diatonic  melody,  consists 
of  an  equable  movement  through  the  interval  of  a  second,  with 
an  agreeably  varied  radical  change  through  the  same  space :  the 
current  being  occasionally  broken  by  wider  equable  intervals, 
and  by  different  forms  of  stress,  as  the  sentiments  may  require 
these  additions  upon  individual  words. 

Inasmuch  as  this  fault  is  an  error  of  long  quantity,  it  is  not 
often  heard  in  the  hasty  pronunciation  of  common  life.  I  have, 
however,  met  with  a  slight  degree  of  it  in  a  phlegmatic  drawler. 
Public  speakers  overwrought  by  excitement,  and  straining  their 
throats  to  be  heard,  I  say,  straining  their  throats,  instead  of 
energizing  their  voices,  are  most  liable  to  this  error  of  intonation. 
Some  cases  of  this  fault  are  connected  with  a  monotonous  cur- 
rent melody,  and  a  very  defective  management  of  the  cadence. 
I  heard  it  under  the  form  of  the  protracted  radical,  along  with 
other  heinous  offences  against  good  elocution,  in  one  of  the 
public's  '  great  Actors.'  It  was  most  conspicuous  in  his  endeavor 
to  give  long  quantity  to  immutable  syllables  ;  as  in  the  following 
words  of  Macbeth. 

Canst  thou  not  m — inister  to  a  m — ind  diseased  ; 
PI — uck  from  the  m — emory. 


( 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  477 

I  have  here  set  a  dash  after  the  letters  on  which  he  continued 
the  protracted  radical,  until  it  suddenly  vanished  in  the  termina- 
tion of  the  syllable.  The  Actor's  fault  was  the  lapse  from  a 
just  instinct.  He  felt  obscurely  the  need  of  vocal  quantity  for 
the  purpose  of  expression ;  but  being  one  of  those  who  having 
some  animal  spirits,  with  no  education,  little  intellect,  and  an 
inverse  proportion  of  vanity,  are  always  talking  about  them- 
selves, he  never  once  thought  of  such  a  thing,  as  deforming  the 
pronunciation  of  an  immutable  syllable,  nor  of  the  possibility  of 
leading  a  subtonic  element  through  the  equable  concrete  :  matters 
that  would  long  ago  have  been  prepared  for  his  instruction,  if 
there  had  been  in  the  Histrionic  art  more  observation  and  reflec- 
tion, with  less  reliance  on  the  dream  of  'Identity,'  and  the 
fatal  delusion  of  '  Inborn  Genius.' 

Seventh.  The  fault  of  melody  we  are  now  about  to  consider, 
is  somewhat  related  to  the  last  described  misuse  of  the  protracted 
notes.  But  it  includes  some  other  forms  of  intonation,  proper 
to  song :  the  whole  being  confused  in  such  a  manner  with  the 
equable  concrete,  as  to  destroy  every  design  of  speech,  and  to 
furnish  even  far  beyond  Recitative,  the  ultra  example  of  vocal 
deformity. 

In  the  history  of  man,  there  is  nothing  more  indefinite  than 
descriptions  of  the  voice:  but  there  is  reason  for  believing  — 
this  deformed  melody  is  the  same  as  the  puritanical  whine,  affected 
so  generally  in  religious  worship,  in  England,  above  two  hundred 
years  ago.  It  has  been  changed  to  other  faults  scarcely  less 
censurable,  in  the  pulpit  of  the  present  day.  The  Society  of 
Friends  alone  have  retained  it  as  a  general  practice :  and  it  will 
not  be  regarded  as  either  idle  or  invidious,  to  look  into  the  struc- 
ture of  this  most  remarkable  intonation,  by  the  light  of  our  pre- 
ceding analysis. 

I  shall  first  set  down  the  notation  of  this  melody,  and  after- 
wards particularly  explain  it. 

I        heard      a         voice      from      heaven    saying,     write, 

L^  ^/o  ^  ^^ij-g «-^^ 1 


478  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

bless-ed        are      the        dead  who  die      in    the  Lord. 


W-^a^ylfi^W'^  ^jrf-^ 


I  have  spoken  of  the  Minor  Third  as  belonging  to  the  plain- 
tive scale  of  song.  A  melody  founded  on  a  current  of  minor 
thirds,  has  that  peculiar  character  which  forbids  its  use  in  speech. 
Now  the  above  notation  is,  with  a  few  exceptions,  a  melody  of 
minor  thirds  in  the  note  of  song ;  and  its  unpleasant  and  mono- 
tonous whine  is  produced  by  the  drift  of  that  interval. 

Upon  this  staff,  let  the  third  be  minor.  Then  the  first  and 
second  syllables  are  protracted  vanishes  upon  a  concrete  minor 
third.  A,  and  voice,  are  protracted  radicals  to  a  concrete 
descent  of  the  same  interval.  From,  is  a  protracted  radical  to 
the  rising  interval  of  a  minor  third.  Heaven,  is  a  minor  third 
of  the  same  form  with  voice.  The  two  syllables  of  saying,  are 
equable  concretes,  respectively,  of  an  upward  and  downward 
tone.  The  rest  severally  resemble  those  already  described  ; 
except  who,  which  begins  with  a  protracted  radical  to  a  direct 
wave  of  the  minor  third,  and  terminates  in  a  protracted  vanish, 
on  its  downward  constituent. 

In  the  execution  of  this  melody,  there  is  not  only  the,  general 
effect  of  a  disagreeable  and  monotonous  song,  but  there  are 
peculiar  and  striking  contrasts,  arising  from  the  various  changes 
among  these  different  forms  of  intonation.  The  most  extraordi- 
nary liberties  are  taken  with  quantity.  The  long,  however,  as 
necessary  for  the  note  of  song,  predominates.  There  is  here 
no  distinction  between  immutable,  and  indefinite  syllables :  the 
short  are  not  only  prolonged  to  any  extent,  as  in  ivrite,  but 
they  are  divided  as  in  voice,  which  is  apportioned  to  the  two 
parts  of  its  symbol,  as  if  it  were  voy  iss.  I  have  introduced  the 
equable  concrete  among  the  protracted  notes,  and  have  put  the 
cadence  into  the  diatonic  form,  to  exemplify  those  abrupt  and 
rousing  changes  of  the  whole  character  of  intonation,  sometimes 
made  at  the  pauses,  and  the  close  of  this  most  fantastic  melody. 
I  do  not  further  describe  its  varieties,  in  the  use  of  the  above 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  479 

named  constituents,  together  with  the  tremor,  and  the  wider 
intervals  that  may  be  combined  with  them.  But  I  have  shown 
enough  to  furnish  a  phm  for  self-examination  and  amendment. 

If  those  who  are  accustomed  to  this  melody  should  ask,  why 
it  may  not  be  employed,  if  by  habit  agreeable,  and  reverenced 
by  association  with  the  occasions  of  its  use?  I  answer;  that, 
throwing  aside  taste,  as  arbitrary,  and  regarding  usefulness 
alone,  it  has  no  fitness  in  its  intended  purpose,  and  does  not 
accomplish  the  attainable  ends  of  speech.  By  speech  we  com- 
municate our  thoughts;  and  in  the  duties  of  religion,  there  are 
motives  and  zeal,  to  do  it  with  the  most  forcible  means  of  per- 
suasion and  argument.  So  far  as  the  voice  is  concerned  in  these 
duties,  its  means  lie  principally  in  the  energy  and  expression  of 
intonated  emphasis.  But  by  the  intonation  in  this  remarkable 
melody,  the  varying  designs  of  speaking-emphasis,  are  counter- 
acted by  the  almost  continued  impression  of  a  plaintive  song ;  or 
are  crossed  in  purpose  by  the  unmeaning  obtrusion  of  unexpected 
changes.  How  can  the  sentiments  which  direct  a  full-voiced  into- 
nation, for  the  encouraging  descriptions  of  blessedness  and  glory, 
be  represented  by  the  trembling  voice  of  distress  ?  How  can  the 
positive  conclusions  of  truth,  and  wonder  at  an  almighty  power, 
requiring  the  downward  concrete,  be  enforced  by  the  shrillness 
ofa  perpetual  cry  ?  How  can  we  particularize  the  strong  feel- 
ing of  supplication,  by  the  semitone,  if  we  equally  employ  it  in 
the  threats  of  vengeance  ?  And  with  what  force  can  we  repre- 
sent interrogation,  if  the  wider  intervals  instinctively  allotted  to 
it,  are  so  often  unmeaningly  wasted  in  the  voice  ? 

Whoever  regards  the  words  of  ordinary  song,  knows  into  what 
confusion  emphasis  is  there  thrown.  It  is  still  less  clear  and 
correct  in  the  kind  of  melody  we  are  now  considering. 

I  have  thus  made  the  strongest  representation  of  this  fault. 
It  is  sometimes  heard  in  a  more  moderate  degree,  especially  in 
the  voices  of  women ;  consisting  of  a  slight  protraction  of  the 
vanish,  on  all  the  long  quantities  of  discourse. 

This  singing-melody,  as  delivered  in  the  public  Meeting-house, 
by  men  as  well  as  women,  is  generally  of  a  high  or  piercing 
pitch ;  this  being  the  means  of  audibility  usually  employed  by 
persons  of  uncultivated  voice. 


480  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Cadence.  Speech  is  particularly  liable  to 
faults  in  the  successions  of  the  radical  pitch  of  melody ;  and  of 
the  cadence.  Even  the  best  readers  do  not  seem  to  have  acci- 
dentally reached  an  attainable  variety,  in  the  execution  of  the 
current  and  close  of  discourse.  But  faults  in  the  cadence  are 
the  most  striking. 

We  can  assign  a  cause  for  the  frequent  failures  upon  this 
point. 

Whoever  closely  observes  the  character  of  speech,  in  the  com- 
mon dialogue  of  life,  must  perceive  that  the  earnest  interests 
which  govern  it,  the  sharp  replications  and  interruptions  of  argu- 
ment, and  the  piercing  pitch  of  mirth  and  anger  exclude,  in  a 
great  measure,  the  terminating  repose  of  the  cadence.  This  is 
particularly  the  case  with  children  and  the  ignorant,  who  having 
no  motive  either  of  action  or  speech,  except  interested  curiosity 
and  selfish  passion,  rarely  employ  any  other  than  the  wider  and 
more  expressive  intervals  of  intonation.  When  therefore  a 
person  first  undertakes  to  read,  with  the  serious  purpose  of  a 
dignified  elocution,  the  impassioned  habit  is  too  inveterate  to  be 
at  once  laid  aside ;  and  a  disposition  to  keep  up  the  colloquial 
characteristic  of  speech,  extending  itself  to  the  place  of  the 
cadence,  defers  for  a  long  time,  the  ability  to  give,  with  pro- 
priety and  taste,  the  more  composed  and  the  graver  intonation 
of  the  terminative  phrase. 

Faults  in  the  execution  of  the  cadence  are  various.  The  most 
remarkable  instance  within  my  memory,  is  that  of  a  clergyman, 
vrho  in  an  address  of  fifteen  minutes  duration,  never  once,  to  my 
observation,  made  a  cadence ;  no,  not  even  at  his  final  period. 
The  audience  were  notified  to  sit  down,  by  his  terminative  Amen, 
not  through  the  proper  indication  of  the  close  by  his  voice. 

But  even  those  who  have  the  ability  to  make  a  cadence  are 
infected  by  the  next  fault  to  be  mentioned. 

I  described  ten  forms  of  the  cadence.  This  was  done  to 
point  out  distinctionsf  critically  made  by  an  accurate  ear,  and  in 
reality  executed  by  those  who  have  flexibility  of  intonation.  For 
the  purposes  of  instructive  rule,  we  may  particularize  the 
Feeble,  the  Duad,  the  Triad,  and  the  Prepared  cadences.    These 


FAULTS  OP  READERS.  481 

are  quite  suflScient  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  reading ;  and 
vocal  skill  can  ahvays  effect  an  interchangeable  variety  of  them, 
in  the  succession  of  periods.  The  next  fault  then  consists  in  a 
repetition  at  every  pause,  of  the  same  kind  of  cadence,  and  that 
generally  the  full  form  of  the  triad.  This  fault  is  increased  by 
common  punctuation,  which  often  sets  a  period  at  places,  where 
the  voice  should  be  only  suspended  by  the  phrase  of  the  down- 
ward ditone.  A  want  of  nicety  too,  in  varying  the  cadence 
according  to  the  indication  of  the  close,  is  a  very  general  fault : 
for  there  is  great  clearness  given  to  discourse,  by  the  just  dis- 
cernment, that  assigns  the  less  reposing  and  the  feeble  cadence, 
to  loose  sentences,  or  doubtful  periods,  and  the  full  and  pre- 
pared, to  the  end  of  a  paragraph  or  chapter. 

I  once  heard  an  Actor  of  high  character  use,  and  not  unfre- 
quently,  what  we  formerly  called  a  false  cadence :  that  is,  a 
descent  of  the  third  by  radical  change  ;  the  second  constituent 
of  the  Triad  being  altogether  omitted.  This  false  cadence  is 
sometimes  made  on  a  wider  discrete  interval ;  the  voice  suddenly 
falling  a  fifth  or  even  an  octave,  if  the  pitch  has  been  high 
enough  to  allow  these  descents. 

Some  persons  are  in  the  habit  of  making  the  cadence  in  a  low 
and  almost  inaudible  pitch.  In  this  case  a  want  of  prospective 
reach  in  the  ear,  prevents  a  reader  from  hitting  the  precise  place 
for  his  cadence.  One  who  has  not  this  skill,  may  indeed  know, 
the  period-pause  is  at  hand,  and  that  the  voice  should  desecend : 
but  being  ignorant  at  what  point  he  ought  to  begin,  under  the  fear 
of  falling  precipitately  upon  the  close,  he  prepares  for  it  too  soon. 
A  downward  ditone  is  first  made,  and  some  instinct  preventing  him 
from  adding  the  next  tone  below,  by  which  the  cadence  would  be 
completed  before  its  time,  he  adds  a  monotone,  and  again  tries  a 
downward  ditone.  In  this  manner  he  desends,  till  Avith  an  en- 
feebled voice,  the  cadence  is  made  on  the  three  final  syllables. 
The  process  here  described  is  not  indeed  continued  through  many 
words  ;  most  readers  would  in  that  case  soon  exhaust  their  pitch. 
Yet  this  does  sometimes  happen :  for  the  voice  by  this  shelving 
course,  is  at  last  brought  down  to  a  husky  quality,  and  almost  to 
an  inaudible  pitch. 


482  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Intonation  at  Pauses.  Under  the  preceding 
head,  we  described  the  nature  and  effect  of  false  intonation, 
at  the  final  close  of  a  sentence.  There  are  besides,  certain  sub- 
pauses  "within  the  limits  of  a  sentence,  variously  dividing  it 
into  members  or  portions,  called  in  our  account  of  rythmus, 
pausal  sections.  To  the  eye,  these  are  separated  by  the  common 
marks  of  punctuation,  representing  the  duration  of  the  pause. 
But  the  temporal  rest  alone  is  not  sufficient,  in  all  cases,  to 
prevent  misapprehension  of  the  meaning  in  discourse.  The 
comma  and  the  period  denote  respectively,  the  least  and  the 
greatest  degree  of  separation :  and  that  is  the  whole  function 
of  the  temporal  pause.  Intonation  however,  performs  an  im- 
portant part  at  these  subdivisions.  For  the  several  pausal  sec- 
tions are  variously  related  to  each  other :  and  these  relations,  in 
the  degrees  of  connection  and  separation,  are  shown  by  the 
united  means  of  the  temporal  rest,  and  the  phrases  of  melody. 
In  the  twelfth  section,  we  learned  what  phrases  are  proper  for 
thus  connecting  and  separating  the  subdivided  meaning  of  a 
sentence.  Those  who,  with  the  light  of  our  principles,  hereafter 
look  into  this  subject,  will  perceive  the  fitness  of  the  appropria- 
tion there  made  ;  and  will  moreover  be  struck  by  the  violations 
of  sense  and  of  the  rule  of  variety,  so  commonly  heard  among 
speakers :  some  of  whom  set  a  rising  third  or  fifth  at  most  of 
the  sub-pauses,  and  even  at  the  period  itself.  These  improprie- 
ties, must  necessarily  be  frequent,  from  the  character  of  the 
phrases  of  melody,  and  consequently  of  the  manner  of  applying 
them  being  unknown.  The  reader,  I  would  fain  believe,  can  now 
foresee  the  several  faults  that  might  occur  under  this  head ;  for 
certainly  the  sense  will  frequently  be  obscured,  if  a  falling  ditone 
or  tritone  should  be  applied  to  that  pause,  where  a  continuative 
sense  calls  for  the  very  reverse  of  these  downward  phrases. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Third.  The  third  is  properly  employed  in 
the  moderate  forms  of  interrogation,  and  in  conditional  phrases. 
Some  readers  however,  execute  the  whole  current  melody  in 
the  rise  of  this  interval.  To  those  who  recognize  and  feel  the 
grave  dignity  of  the  diatonic  melody,  there  is  a  sharpness  in 
this  current  of  the  third,  that  prevents  its  being  the  Ground  of 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  433 

speech,  and  while  its  improper  use  as  a  Drift  makes  it  monoto- 
nous, its  impressive  character  weakens  by  comparison,  the  empha- 
sis of  wider  intervals,  when  required  in  its  course.  Althoufh 
sharper  in  pitch  than  the  diatonic  melody,  it  wants  the  force 
derived  from  a  contrast  of  higher  intervals  with  the  simple  second. 
I  have  heard  persons  with  this  fault  try  to  read  Milton,  and 
Shakspeare,  and  the  declaratory  parts  of  the  Church-service,  and 
always,  as  appeared  to  me,  without  success.  The  current  of 
dignified  utterance  must  always  consist  of  the  wave  of  the  second, 
on  long  quantities.  No  simple  upward  concrete  can  effect  it: 
though  the  rise  of  a  wide  interval  may  be  occasionally  employed 
for  emphasis,  in  the  gravest  drift  of  the  diatonic  wave. 

It  is  a  fault  in  the  third,  even  when  the  whole  current  is  not 
made  by  that  interval,  to  form  all  the  emphases  with  it.  This 
likewise  gives  a  sharpness  and  monotony  to  speech ;  for  one  of 
its  proprieties  as  well  as  beauties,  consists  in  a  variation  of  em- 
phasis :  and  we  pointed  out,  in  its  proper  place,  the  abundant 
means  for  this  variety. 

The  substitution  of  the  third  for  the  second,  in  melody,  is 
principally  offensive  by  its  monotony :  for  the  wider  intervals, 
as  we  learned  in  the  section  on  drift,  will  not  bear  continued 
repetition. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Fifth.  The  interval  of  the  fifth  is  some- 
times improperly  made  the  current  concrete  of  melody :  the 
peculiar  effect  of  the  intonation  being  most  conspicuous  in  the 
emphatic  places.  It  is  a  less  frequent  fault  than  the  last,  and 
is  more  commonly  heard  in  women.  Its  monotony  has  a  still 
greater  sharpness  than  that  of  the  third:  the  Avhole  melody 
having  to  a  critical  ear,  the  effect  of  an  interrogative  sentence. 

It  is  a  less  remarkable  fault  when,  not  the  current,  but  all  the 
emphases  of  a  diatonic  melody,  are  made  by  the  fifth.  This  too 
has  its  sharpness  and  monotony ;  and  I  am  sure  the  reader  will 
be  sufficiently  guarded  against  this  fault,  by  keeping  in  mind  the 
ample  resources  of  the  voice,  for  a  varied  emphasis. 

Those  who  thus  misplace  the  third,  and  fifth,  are  apt  to  carry 
them  into  the  cadence :  such  readers  end  many  of  their  plain 
declarative  sentences  with  the  characteristic  intonation  of  a 
question. 


484  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

I  might  point  out  a  similar  error  of  place  in  the  Octave :  but 
it  is  of  rare  occurrence,  and  only  heard  in  the  piercing  treble  of 
women.  Some  persons  cannot  ask  a  question  in  the  subdued  and 
dignified  form  of  the  third  or  fifth,  but  do  it  always  in  the 
sharp  intonation  of  the  octave. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Dotvmvard  Movement.  Faults  of  the  down- 
ward concrete,  consist  in  not  giving  the  emphasis  of  falling 
intervals  with  just  extent ;  in  their  misapplication  to  exclamatory 
sentences ;  and  to  certain  questions  that  we  have  shown,  require 
a  downward  intonation.  An  improper  use  of  the  downward 
intervals,  is  sometimes  the  characteristic  of  a  morose  and  saturn- 
ine temper,  in  persons  who  having  no  comfort  within  themselves, 
have  no  .voice  of  complaisance  for  others. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Discrete  3Iovement.  Of  defects  in  the 
management  of  the  radical  change  of  the  second,  in  the  diatonic 
melody,  we  have  already  spoken.  Precipitate  falls  of  the  third, 
fifth,  and  octave,  sometimes  occur  in  the  cadence  of  very  bad 
readers.  Others  again  are  unable  to  make  those  upward  and 
downward  radical  transitions,  by  which  accomplished  readers 
produce  the  most  striking  effects  of  emphasis. 

Of  Faults  in  the  Wave.  The  wave  of  the  second,  both  in  its 
direct  and  inverted  form,  is  dignified  but  plain  in  its  character, 
and  therefore  admissible  into  the  diatonic  melody  as  a  drift. 
But  it  is  not  so  with  the  waves  of  wider  intervals.  They  have 
their  proper  occasions  as  solitary  emphasis;  whereas  the  con- 
tinued repetition  of  them  becomes  a  disgusting  fault.  The  wave, 
commonly  affected  by  a  certain  puling  class  of  readers,  is  the 
inverted-unequal ;  the  voice  descending  through  the  second,  and 
rising  through  the  third,  or  fifth.  This  fault  is  most  remarkable 
in  reading  metrical  composition ;  arising  perhaps,  from  our  famil- 
iarity with  the  union  of  song  and  verse,  and  from  an  association 
of  the  ear,  in  reading,  with  the  wide  and  vivid  intprvals  of  its 
tune.  Persons  who  read  in  this  way,  give  a  set^melody  to  their 
lines ;  certain  parts  of  each  line,  as  far  as  the  emphatic  words 
permit,  having  a  prominent  intonation  of  the  wave. 

There  is  much  of  every  form  of  the  wave  in  conversation  :  and 
the  general  spirit  of  daily  dialogue  often  makes  it  appropriate 
there.     But  I  have  heard  the  colloquial  twirl  even  exaggerated. 


FAULTS  OF  READER?.  485 

by  an  Actress  of  great  temporary  reputation.  Her  style  con- 
sisted of  a  continual  recurrence  of  identical  sections  of  melody, 
composed  principally  of  the  wider  forms  of  tlie  equal  and  unequal 
"Wave ;  showing  indeed  a  vocal  pertness,  and  a  sort  of  vivid 
familiarity,  by  some  called  spirit,  but  wanting  the  brilliant 
dignity  of  execution,  due  from  a  performer  of  High  Comedy  to 
the  Author. 

Some  actors  are  prone  to  the  use  of  the  double  wave.  They 
make  it  the  emphasis  of  every  feeling ;  thereby  denoting  that 
they  themselves  have  none.  It  Is  an  impressive  vocal  agent, 
and  is  therefore  with  an  erroneous  idea  both  of  its  purpose  and 
place,  often  introduced  to  give  prominent  effect,  and  variety  to 
melody.  It  has  however,  restrictively,  its  proper  occasions:  and 
let  it  be  remembered,  there  is  a  sneering  petulance  in  its  cha- 
racter, totally  inconsistent  with  dignity. 

Nothing  is  better  calculated  to  show  the  importance  of  the 
plain  ground  of  the  diatonic  melody,  than  this  abuse  of  the  wave. 
It  includes  the  effects  of  faults  in  the  third,  and  fifth,  and  con- 
sequently gives  to  discourse  the  most  florid  and  impressive 
character.  But  when  such  striking  intonation  is  set  on  every 
important  syllable,  how  shall  we  mark  emphatic  words,  except 
by  the  utmost  excesses  in  quality,  time,  or  force?* 

*  The  distinction,  so  often  referred  to  in  this  essay,  between  the  diatonic 
ground-work  of  melody,  and  the  occasional  expression  of  wider  intervals,  judi- 
ciously employed  upon  it,  is  a  great  essential  of  natural,  effective,  and  elegant 
speech.  According  to  our  system,  this  distinction  was  an  ordination  of  the 
voice,  to  meet  the  progressive  development  and  demands  of  thought  and  feeling. 
Without  regard  to  it,  no  one  can  ever  succeed  in  tragedy,  or  in  any  other  dignified 
subject  of  elocution.  For  the  diatonic  melody  alone,  has  the  character  appro- 
priate to  awe,  solemnity,  reverence,  and  grave  deliberation.  And  although  the 
Art  of  Speech,  in  its  almost  stone-deafness  to  the  loud  facts  of  intonation,  baa 
never  yet  been  aware  of  this  distinction ;  still  the  purposes  of  truth  and  beauty 
in  the  voice,  have  herein  never  been  without  a  witness.  For  he  who  receives 
the  instruction  designed  in  this  work,  may,  by  now  finding  occasional  instances 
of  an  unconscious  use  of  the  diatonic  melody,  believe,  that  under  a  like  uncon- 
scious use,  it  must  have  been  heard  in  every  age  of  cultivated  speech.  Its 
rarity  in  the  voices  of  women,  is  one  cause  why  so  few  among  them,  arc  able 
to  rise  to  the  dignified  intonation  of  the  stage  :  though  a  pretty  face,  and  other 
pretty  attractions,  may  serve  them  well  enough,  though  not  over-well,  in  Comedy 
without  it.     They  have  so  accustomed  an  undisccruing  audience,  and  so  habit- 


tr 


486  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Of  Faults  in  Drift.  The  purposes  both  of  truth  and  variety, 
in  the  art  of  Reading- Well,  are  effected  by  a  delicate  regard  to 
the  corespondence  between  sentiment  and  vocal  expression,  in 
individual  words ;  and  to  the  Drift,  or  continuation  of  a  given 

uated  tliemselve'^,  to  a  puling  affectation,  which  consists  in  a  current  melody 
of  the  wider  intervals  and  waves,  the  semitone,  and  minor  third ;  and  are  so 
ignorant  or  careless  of  their  vocal  duty,  that  they  do  not  perceive,  and  therefore 
will  not  be  told,  one  of  the  real  causes  of  their  frequent  failure.  As  far  as  the 
obscurity  of  histrionic  description  and  criticism  allow  the  inference,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  Mrs.  Siddons,  in  the  early  part  of  her  career,  may,  to  an  im- 
pressive degree,  though  all-unconscious  of  its  nature,  and  its  rules,  have  employed 
the  diatonic  melody.  An  incident  related  by  her  biographer,  Boaden,  will  per- 
haps, if  elucidated  by  our  analysis,  lead  us  to  this  conclusion. 

On  her  first  interview  with  Garrick,  Mrs.  Siddons,  then  Miss  Kemble,  'repeated 
some  of  the  speeches  of  Jane  Shore  before  him.  Garrick  seemed  highly  pleased 
with  her  utterance,  and  her  deportment;'  and  'wondered  how  she  had  got  rid 
of  the  Old  song,  and  the  provincial  Ti-tum-tV 

All  former  criticism  on  intonation,  being,  as  we  may  say,  unintelligible,  we 
are  left  to  discover,  by  the  light  of  our  analysis,  what  these  terms,  Old  Song, 
and  Ti~tum-ti  mean.  Now,  as  the  construction,  and  the  plain  yet  peculiar 
effect  of  the  diatonic  melody  of  speech,  is  far  removed  from  the  construction, 
and  the  more  vivid  effect  of  song ;  and  as  the  wave,  the  wider  concrete  and  dis- 
crete intervals,  the  semitone  and  minor  third,  with  their  impressive  intonations, 
if  not  song  itself,  do  more  nearly  resemble  it,  than  the  diatonic  melody  does : 
and  further,  as  the  trisyllabic  foot,  Ti-tum-ti,  seems  to  be  a  rythmical  fancy 
of  the  ear,  suggested  by  a  sort  of  regular  return  of  emphatic,  but  misapplied 
intervals,  such  as  described  in  the  text,  under  the  present  head  of  faults,  of  the 
wave;  I  cannot  avoid  thinking  that  Mrs.  Siddons  did,  at  this  early  period,  as 
I  personally  remember  she  did  in  after  life,  either  in  part,  or  altogether,  uncon- 
sciously, execute  the  just  diatonic  melody:  and  that  Garrick,  with  not  more 
verbal  discrimination  of  the  intonation  of  speech  than  his  call  boy,  had  no  other 
means,  for  describing  his  perception  of  its  nature  and  excellence,  besides  that 
of  giving  toa  contrasted  and  strongly  offensive  style  of  utterance,  the  names  of 
Ti-tum-ti,  and  Song.  I  am  willing,  also  to  believe,  that  Garrick  himself,  with- 
out being  aware  of  its  nature  and  principles,  may, —  though  never  in  perfection, 
within  the  pale  of  such  igtiorance, —  have  emploj'ed  a  well  marked  expression 
of  wider  intervals  upon  the  simple  ground  of  a  diatonic  intonation. 

Looking  then  to  the  two  eminent  instances  now  before  us,  I  would  indeed  be 
loth  to  regard  them  under  that  condition,  which  Guido  so  satirically  assigned 
to  singers,  unenlightened  by  Science;  but  which,  may  with  truth  be  assigned, 
though  not  unkindly,  to  many  a  Roscius.  even  with  all  his  so  called,  profound 
and  unwearied  study  and  practice  in  his  art,  '  Nam  qui  facit  quod  non  sapit, 
definitur  bestia.'  'For  he  who  acts  without  a  plan, —  Resembles  more  the 
brute  than  man.' 


FAULTS  OF  READEKS. 


487 


character  through  one  or  more  sentences :  whereas  a  nef^lect  of 
this  adjustment,  will,  according  to  its  degree,  weaken  the  im- 
pression of  speech,  or  shock  the  ear  and  taste  of  an  auditor. 
Some  readers  continue  one  style  of  voice  through  every  change 
of  thought  and  passion :  others  vary  the  character  of  the  utter- 
ance, without  adapting  it  to  the  demands  of  sentiment. 

We  have  learned  to  give  the  most  complete  close  to  a  para- 
graph or  chapter,  by  the  prepared  cadence.  Now  certain 
changes  in  the  structure  of  melody,  formerly  described,  may  be 
employed  to  prepare  an  audience  for  the  beginning  of  a  new 
paragraph  or  subject.  The  deficiency  of  a  speaker  on  this  point 
is  a  striking  fault. 

The  object  most  worthy  of  remark  in  this  place,  is  the  sudden 
transition  from  one  style  of  utterance  to  another,  without  a  cor- 
responding change  in  the  subject.  I  once  heard  an  Actor  set  the 
whole  House  in  a  hum  of  merriment,  by  making  that  answer  of 
Jaffier  to  the  conspirators, 

Nay  —  by  Heaven  I'll  do  this, 

in  the  curling  quaintness  of  the  wave.  The  sentiments  of  JaflBer, 
the  solemnity  of  the  juncture,  and  the  purpose  of  his  entrance 
among  the  conspii-ators,  are  all  at  variance  with  the  levity,  con- 
veyed by  this  sneering  intonation.  Severity  of  resolution  is  Jaf- 
fier's  sentiment ;  and  this  calls  for  the  energy  of  stress,  together 
with  the  positiveness  of  a  downward  emphasis.  And  it  seems  to 
have  been  a  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  from  a  contrast  between  the 
seriousness  of  the  sentiment,  and  the  pertness  of  the  player,  that 
caused  the  merriment  in  the  House.  Indeed  the  case,  when  con- 
sidered, conveys  an  idea  of  the  instinctive  perception,  and  pro- 
priety of  the  Audience,  and  of  the  absence  of  both  in  the  player. 
They  laughed  at  what  was  laughable.  He  could  not  be  serious  at 
what  was  grave  ;  and  perhaps  satisfied  himself,  that  their  laughter 
at  the  ridiculous,  was  to  him,  a  complacent  tribute  of  applause. 
I  have  tried  in  vain  to  find  a  term  for  the  extraordinary  trans- 
itions, sometimes  heard  on  the  stage.  They  belong  to  the  head 
of  the  faults  of  Drift :  but  we  must  speak  of  them  as  vocal  pranks, 
without  a  name.     I  mean  to  designate,  those  abrupt  changes  from 


488  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

high  to  low ;  from  a  roar  to  a  whisper ;  from  quick  to  slow ;  harsh 
to  gentle  ;  from  the  diatonic  melody  to  the  chromatic  ;  from  the 
gravity  of  long  quantity,  to  the  levity  of  sneer,  to  the  quick  stress 
of  anger  and  mirth,  or  to  the  rapid  mutterings  of  a  madman. 
We  had  here,  some  years  ago,  a  celebrated  foreign  player 
from  whom  I  draw  this  picture,  scarcely  caricatured.  His  imita- 
tors, who  have  already  disappeared,  called  themselves  the  school 

of ;  a  blank  now  to  be  well  filled  up,  as  the  school  of 

Outrage. 

A  system  of  elocution  may  be  defended,  on  either  of  two  dif- 
ferent grounds.  The  one,  that  it  is  a  copy  from  nature:  the 
other,  that  it  docs  artificially  best  answer  the  ends  of  speech. 
No  apology  for  such  flagitious  transitions  can  be  derived  from 
either  of  these  sources.  I  have  seen  persons  under  the  highest 
excitement  of  passion,  and  changing  from  one  degree  and  kind 
of  feeling  to  another ;  but  I  have  never  heard  anything  even  dis- 
tantly like  the  harlequin-transformations  of  voice,  sometimes  ap- 
plauded on  the  Stage,  except  in  a  paroxysm  of  womanish  hysteria. 
On  the  other  hand,  supposing  the  practice  to  be  founded  on  an 
artificial  system,  we  would  make  no  objection,  provided  it  could 
accomplish,  by  conventional  agreement,  all  the  expressive  pur- 
poses of  speech.  But  what  reasonable  plea  can  that  system  urge, 
which  perverts  all  the  beauty  and  frugality  of  rule  ;  which  de- 
stroys, by  its  anomaly  and  abruptness,  all  the  pleasures  of  anti- 
cipation ;  and  takes  from  the  fine  arts,  the  delight  in  boundless 
association,  arising  from  the  busy  exercise  of  well-established 
knowledge. 

Where  the  fault  does  not  arise  from  blundering  ignorance,  or 
from  slavish  imitation,  it  is  purposely  assumed  with  the  view  to 
produce  what  the  small  vocabulary  of  dramatic  criticism,  calls 
'  Eifcct.'  The  Actor  being  deficient  in  the  means  of  that  truth 
and  variety  of  expression,  which  only  a  knowledge  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  voice,  not  the  practice  of  the  Stage,  can  afibrd,  tries 
to  help-out  his  uninstructed  Genius  by  breaking  through  the  even 
tenor  of  an  appropriate  Drift,  with  some  ear-starting  stimulus  or 
some  unexpected  collapse. 

We  should  however  do  some  Actors  the  justice  to  believe,  that 
with  a  proper  estimate  both  of  nature  and  art,  they  must  secretly 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  439 

disapprove  of  such  things.  But  how  shall  we  absolve  them  from 
the  charge  of  submitting  to  what  they  know  to  be  ill-judged  ap- 
plause ;  and  of  being  '  willing  to  deceive  the  people  because  they 
will  be  deceived ;'  the  easy  art  and  resource  of  Aveakness,  with 
cunning ;  and  the  wretched  apology  of  ambition  and  knavery.  It 
13  the  part  of  elevated  intellect  to  undeceive  the  world,  even  by 
unwelcome  truth ;  to  make  all  men  at  last  bow  down ;  and  to 
be  the  master  of  demonstration  instead  of  the  slave  of  popular 
conceit. 

Faults  in  the  Crrouping  of  Speech.  The  Intonation  at  Pauses 
denotes  the  degrees  of  connection  between  the  succeeding  sec- 
tions of  discourse,  and  between  related  words,  within  the  limit 
of  each.  The  Grouping  of  speech  is  intended  to  keep  these 
sections,  in  a  measure,  independent  of  each  other ;  to  unite  the 
sense  when  broken  by  expletives,  or  by  grammatical  inversion ; 
and  to  bring  together,  on  the  ear,  separated  words,  even  from 
different  sections.  Thus  the  Temporal  rest  makes  a  distinct 
group  of  a  section  by  dividing  it  from  others.  The  Phrases  of 
melody,  by  the  monotone,  the  rising  ditone,  and  tritone,  connect 
grammatical  concords,  when  separated  by  intervening  construc- 
tions. The  Abatement  groups,  as  it  were,  within  brackets  of 
the  voice,  and  thus  keeps  together  what  is  heard  under  a  reduced, 
or  piano  form  of  force.  The  Flight  limits  to  itself,  the  sense  of 
what  is  embraced  in  a  hurried  or  presto  utterance.  The  Em- 
phatic tie  groups  within  the  field  of  hearing, —  by  means  of 
impressive  force, —  words  and  phrases,  separated  in  construction 
from  each  other. 

Faults  in  grouping  arise  from  not  applying  these  several  forms 
as  their  purposes  require:  and  ignorance  of  their  design  and 
appropriate  use  cannot  fail  to  mar  the  perspicuity  of  oral  dis- 
course. He  who  has  a  full  knowledge  of  the  means  and  eflficacy 
of  grouping,  will  be  able,  on  just  principles,  to  criticise  and 
correct  the  faults  of  others. 

Fault  of  Mimicry.  In  a  previous  page  of  this  section,  it  was 
remarked,  that  imitations  of  speech,  Avhether  made  seriously,  or 
for  mirth,  are  generally  copies  of  its  faults.     I  am  here  to  speak 


490  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

of  the  effect  of  Mimicry  in  corrupting  the  principles  and  prac- 
tice of  vocal  expression. 

Under  the  prevalent  views  of  the  old  elocution,  this  purpose 
may  need  explanation.  Its  creed  is,  that  all  who  speak  with  an 
understanding  and  feeling  of  their  subject,  speak  with  propriety. 
Now,  nearly  all  persons  speak  differently  :  and  we  ought  to  allow 
—  they  severally  speak  their  own  thoughts  and  feelings.  This 
belief  then  carries  with  it  the  conclusion,  that  there  is  no  abstract 
or  universal  system,  and  therefore  no  unity  of  design  in  the  ex- 
pression of  speech ;  but  that  its  uses  must  be  according  to  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  each  individual. 

It  would  therefore  follow,  that  mimicry,  by  amusing  itself  with 
the  peculiarities  of  all,  so  far  from  being  injurious  to  the  powers 
of  speech,  must  on  the  contrary,  tend  to  support  and  improve 
them.  For,  by  this  belief,  all  being  supposed  to  speak  their 
respective  sentiments  correctly,  the  mimic,  who  can  assume  the 
proprieties  of  each,  must  possess  the  faculty  of  acquiring  the 
excellencies  of  all.  Now  we  know, —  the  effects  of  mimicry 
depend  on  contrast ;  and  the  contrast  in  this  case,  must  be  made, 
with  some  standard  in  the  human  voice.  But  by  the  condition  of 
the  creed,  there  is  no  standard  but  that  of  individuality :  and 
thus  the  standard  is  destroyed  by  its  endless  variations.  Mimicry 
then,  though  able  to  assume  the  vocal  ability  of  all,  cannot,  from 
the  want  of  a  standard,  assign  a  comparative  excellence,  or 
superiority :  and  though  it  may,  by  universal  imitation,  add  to 
its  resources  and  flexibility,  it  cannot,  from  the  want  of  this 
measure  of  excellence,  improve  or  exalt  itself.  And  as  it  must 
necessarily,  from  the  vast  amount  of  Avorldly  falsehood  and  bad 
taste,  be  more  frequently  employed  on  vulgarity  and  exaggera- 
tion, than  on  truth  and  refinement,  its  constant  tendency  must 
be  to  error  and  degradation. 

Mimicry  in  spcccli,  is  the  exact,  or  caricatured  imitation  of 
its  faults.  It  must  therefore  be  founded  on  a  perverted,  or 
extravagant  use  of  the  various  forms  of  Quality,  Time,  Force, 
Abruptness  and  Pitch.  Mimicry  is  the  result  of  the  ignorance 
and  error  of  man,  in  the  uses  of  his  voice.  With  all  his  imitations, 
he  cannot  turn  into  ridicule, —  except  it  reminds  him  of  his  own 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  491 

defects  of  body  or  mind, —  the  imviolated  law  of  nature,  in  the 
voice  of  a  single  inferior  animal.  In  the  deformities  of  his  own 
voice,  he  is  the  fit  subject  of  his  own  contempt.  Had  the  true 
and  expressive  system  of  that  voice,  been  developed  and  culti- 
vated, there  would  have  been  few  faults  except  upon  the  vulgar 
tongue ;  and  perhaps  no  mimicry,  worthy  of  an  intelligent  smile, 
in  speech.  The  order  of  Nature, —  with  all  things  aright  and 
true  but  Man, —  has  by  its  fitness  and  accordance,  banished 
every  cause  of  the  Ridiculous  from  her  works :  and  an  elocution 
that  elegantly  obeys  her  laws,  cannot  to  a  discerning  and  respect- 
ful ear  be  mimicked. 

Mimicry  is  not  only  founded  on  faults,  but  it  contributes  to 
confirm  and  to  multiply  them.  It  multiplies  faults,  by  confound- 
ing those  just  perceptions,  that  might  discern  and  prevent,  or 
correct  them ;  and  it  confirms  them  in  the  mimic,  by  giving  to 
a  habit  of  distortion,  the  force  of  second  nature  in  his  voice. 
Mimicry  weakens  or  perverts  the  powers  of  expression,  by  con- 
fusing its  signs,  in  representing  the  same  sentiment  as  diff"erently 
expressed  by  different  individuals :  when  in  common  consistency, 
these  sentiments  should  always  have  the  same  appropriate  vocal 
sign.  One  cause  of  our  not  readily  perceiving  the  true  system 
of  speech,  is,  that  the  ordained  associations  of  sign  and  senti- 
ment are  with  the  greater  part  of  mankind,  confounded,  by  the 
same  sentiment  being  expressed  in  so  many  diff"erent  ways. 
How  much  then,  must  the  mimic  be  at  fault,  and  how  much  must 
the  whole  purpose  of  his  speech  be  corrupted,  by  the  cn-dloss 
variety  and  exaggerated  degree  of  false  expression,  constantly 
upon  his  ear  ?  Few  mimics  are  able  to  rise  to  the  character  of 
dignified  utterance  :  and  when  they  even  seriously  imitate  accom- 
plished speakers,  it  is  always  in  their  accidental  defects.  Some 
of  the  better  class  of  Actors  possess  the  power  of  mimicry :  but 
as  far  as  I  have  known  them,  they  have  wanted  a  high  refine- 
ment and  finish,  in  the  trutliful  representation  of  thought  nnd 
passion.  And  so  it  ought  to  be :  and  so  it  will  be  regiirded 
hereafter,  if  there  is  any  conformity  to  nature,  in  our  i)iei^ent 
history. 

And  here  let  me  not  unmindfully  say,  that  if  nature  had  not, 


492  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

by  accident,  afforded  me  the  light  and  the  defences  of  her  truth 
and  her  principles,  I  would  not  have  dared,  nor  even  thought,  to 
touch  the  mantle  of  renown,  that  wraps  the  Histrionic  character 
of  the  Immortal  Garrick.  But  when  I  see  him,  in  that  Em- 
blematic Portrait  of  his  fame,  equally  affected  to  the  Comic,  and 
the  Tragic  Muse ;  and  hear,  that  he  could,  both  by  taste  and 
habit,  mask  the  purer  features  of  his  vocal  nature,  by  an  exag- 
gerated and  distorted  mimicry,  I  grieve  to  think  that  my 
imagination  must  lose  a  single  ray,  from  the  bright  and  welcome 
vision  of  his  Ideal  Perfection. 

Such  from  its  very  nature,  must,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
be  the  effect  of  mimicry,  even  on  the  finest  mould  of  nature  in 
the  imenlightened  human  voice.  How  far  a  full  and  accurate 
knowledge  and  use  of  all  the  means,  ordained  for  truth  and 
elegance  of  expression,  with  a  perfect  discrimination  between 
the  right  and  the  wrong  in  speech,  may  enable  a  speaker  habit- 
ually to  practice  the  deformities,  without  infecting  the  graces 
of  utterance,  must  be  determined  by  the  opportunities  of  future 
experience.  At  present,  it  is  well  to  keep  the  tongue  away  from 
the  contaminating  company  of  its  own  unconscious  faults.  For  it 
is  with  our  voices,  as  with  our  moral  sense ;  the  habit  of  doing 
only  right,  most  effectually  preserves  us  from  wrong :  and  it  is 
no  less  dangerous,  to  play  with  mischief  in  the  one,  than  to 
amuse  ourselves  with  mockery  in  the  other. 

Of  Monotony  of  Voice.  This  is  an  old  term  in  elocution  : 
but  it  is  here  used  with  a  more  extensive  signification  than 
formerly.  It  means,  in  general,  the  undue  continuation  of  any 
function  of  the  voice. 

The  investigation  of  this  subject  may  furnish  some  support  to 
the  doctrine  of  expression,  laid  down  in  this  essay.  For  since 
correct  and  elegant  speech  is,  in  part,  effected  by  the  varied 
succession  of  the  vocal  constituents,  it  will  afford  no  little  sup- 
port to  this  proposed  system,  to  find, —  the  violation  of  its  rules, 
by  an  exclusive  use  of  certain  of  these  constituents,  is  productive 
of  the  palling  impression  of  monotony. 

One  can  scarcely  point  out  an  occasion,  on  which  the  simple 
rise  of  the  second,  or  the  diatonic  wave  has  this  effect:    for 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  493 

according  to  our  system,  these  are  properly  the  most  frequent 
movements  in  discourse.  The  employment  of  the  second,  in 
place  of  another  interval,  may  sometimes  produce  an  error  in 
expression,  but  we  do  not  call  it  monotony.  The  chromatic 
melody,  though  a  continuation  of  the  impressive  interval  of  the 
semitone,  is  not  monotonous,  if  the  sentiment  is  suited  to  its 
plaintiveness :  but  many  other  constituents,  when  spread  over 
discourse,  offend  by  this  fault.  Thus  a  repeated  succession  of  the. 
same  phrases  in  the  current ;  the  same  kind  of  cadence,  particu- 
larly if  it  frequently  occurs ;  a  melody  formed  on  the  third,  or 
fifth  ;  a  restriction  of  emphasis  to  the  third,  or  fifth,  or  octave  ; 
a  constant  use  of  the  accent  and  emphasis  of  the  radical  stress, 
of  the  vanishing,  or  the  thorough  stress,  of  the  tremor,  and  of 
the  downward  wider  intervals ;  too  free  a  use  of  distant  skips 
in  the  radical  change,  both  in  the  current,  and  the  cadence ;  the 
wider  and  unequal  waves ;  with  the  protracted  notes  of.  song, 
may  each  become  the  cause  of  monotony.  In  short,  it  may  be 
here  repeated,  that  all  constituents,  severally  allotted  to  the  rare 
occasions  of  emphasis,  seem  to  be  protected  against  the  fault  of 
undue  repetition,  not  only  by  its  violating  the  rules  of  sense  and 
expression,  but  by  producing  at  the  same  time,  an  oifensive 
monotony. 

Of  Ranting  in  Speech.  This  fault  consists  in  the  excess  of 
certain  functions.  These  are  loudness ;  violence  in  the  radical 
and  vanishing  stresses ;  and  in  general,  an  over-doing  of  the 
natural  and  just  expression  of  a  sentiment,  when  united  with 
unnecessary  force. 

Of  Affectation  in  Speech.  This  consists  in  an  imbecile  per- 
version of  the  proper  use  of  articulation  and  intonation,  with  a 
mincing  awkwardness,  that  always  attends  the  actions  of  personal 
conceit. 

Of  Mouthing  in  Speech.  This  belongs  properly  to"  the  head 
of  the  faults  of  articulation,  or  deviations  from  standard  pro- 
nunciation;  of  which  it  is  not  my  intention  to  speak  par- 
ticularly. 

Mouthing  consists  in  the  improper  employment  of  the  lips  in 

utterance. 


494  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Some  of  the  tonic  elements,  and  one  of  the  subtonics  are 
made  by  the  assistance  of  the  lips.  They  are  o-we,  oo-ze,  ou-r, 
and  m.  When  these  abound,  it  may,  without  precaution  on  the 
part  of  the  speaker,  lead  to  mouthing.  All  the  other  subtonics 
may  be,  to  a  degree,  infected  with  this  fault.  It  slightly  infuses 
the  sound  of  the  o-we  or  oo-ze  into  their  vocality ;  for  the  pro- 
trusion of  the  lips,  gives  something  of  this  character  even  to  a 
lingual  element.     Mouthing  may  be  called  a  form  of  affectation. 

I  might  here  give  a  particular  description  of  the  voices  of 
Childhood  and  of  Age  :  for  these  may  be  looked  upon  as  faults, 
when  compared  with  the  full-formed,  vigorous,  and  varied  utter- 
ance of  intermediate  periods.  Our  analysis  will  enable  an  observ- 
ant reader  to  discover  their  characteristics.  He  will  find  the 
voice  of  childhood  to  be  high  in  pitch,  monotonous  in  melody,  and 
defective  in  cadence ;  the  intonation  often  chromatic,  and  highly 
colored  by  the  wider  intervals,  and  by  the  wave.  He  will  find 
old  age  to  be  slow,  with  frequent  pauses,  feeble  radical  stress, 
and  tremor. 

The  faults  thus  enumerated,  are  more  or  less  common  among 
those  who  pass  for  good,  and  often  the  best  readers  and  actors. 
When  instruction  shall  be  derived  from  the  Natural  Philosophy 
of  speech,  and  not  from  the  egotistical  conceit  of  untaught 
genius,  nor  from  the  varying  and  contradictory  examples  it 
pretends  to  set  up  for  Imitation ;  the  defects  and  deformities  of 
utterance  from  these  sources,  now  equally  prevalent  in  the  higher 
and  the  humble  class  of  readers,  will,  like  the  faults  of  grammar, 
be  confined  to  the  uneducated  and  the  careless. 

I  have  described  the  faults  of  speakers  under  general  heads, 
and  in  their  separate  forms.  They  are  combined  by  bad 
speakers,  into  all  possible  degrees  and  forms:  but  the  permuta- 
tions would  defy  every  attempt  towards  a  useful  arrangement. 
The  contemplation  of  the  subject  is  therefore  left  as  a  task  for 
the  reader. 

Should  the  principles  of  this  work  ever  prevail,  and  Speech 
hereafter  become  a  Liberal  and  Elegant  Art,  it  may  be  imagined, 
—  the  faults  described  in  this  section,  as  infecting  the  whole 
world  of  elocution,  may  have  so  far  passed  away,  that  the  pic- 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  495 

ture  here  exhibited,  -will  seem  to  have  been  overdrawn.  But 
■when  were  the  excellencies  of  Art,  or  "Wisdom,  or  Worth,  ever 
universal  or  even  common?  There  will  always  remain  in  this 
motly  world,  posterity  enough,  of  those  who  now  defeat  the 
designs  of  nature,  and  mar  the  mind-directed  music  and  expres- 
sion of  speech,  to  show  to  another  age,  that  I  may  not  unfairly 
have  recorded,  the  almost  universal  prevalence  of  this  deafness, 
and  deformity,  throughout  the  great  family  of  their  vocal  an- 
cestry.* 
In  describing  the  faults  of  readers,  and  on  other  occasions  in 

•  Having  endeavored  to  show,  that  the  history  of  speech,  oiFered  in  this  essay, 
is  founded  in  nature,  and  may  thus  be  considered  as  furnishing  a  system  for  all 
times,  and  for  all  cultivated  nations :  and  having  further,  shown  that  faults, 
being  but  the  misapplication  of  the  constituents  of  a  just  and  elegant  speech, 
must  of  necessity,  be  universally  identical,  among  those  who  disregard  the 
principles  of  that  just  and  elegant  speech;  I  have  only  to  add  here,  as  if  it 
might  be  required,  some  support  to  this  conclusion. 

During  my  residence  at  Rome,  in  the  winter  of  eighteen  hundred  and  forty- 
six — seven,  I  was  present  at  an  annual  exhibition  of  the  scholars  of  the  Propa- 
ganda. From  notes  taken,  at  the  time,  on  the  margin  of  a  programme  of  the 
exercises,  and  recording  my  perception  of  the  character  of  the  elocution,  I 
make  the  following  summary. 

There  were  from  fifty  to  sixty  speakers,  men  and  boys ;  apparently  from  the 
age  of  twelve,  to  five  and  twenty ;  of  all  colors,  visages,  and  languages ;  and 
from  countries  of  all  degrees  of  civilization,  between  the  longitude  of  eastern 
China,  and  that  of  the  Allegheny  mountains.  Now  each  and  all  of  these  indi- 
viduals must  have  had  the  respective  forms  of  their  intonation,  and  of  the  other 
modes  of  the  voice,  determined,  and  so  fixed  by  early  habit,  in  their  native  coun- 
try, that  they  could  have  undergone  no  material  change  in  the  Roman  school. 
Yet  the  proprieties  of  speech,  if  any,  and  all  its  faults,  whether  in  form,  degree, 
or  misapplied  expression,  were  the  same  as  those  we  have  enumerated  in 
the  English  voice.  No  matter,  to  what  syllabic  sound,  or  structure  of  language 
they  had  been  born,  there  was  collectively  among  them,  the  same  vicious 
variety  in  time,  force,  quality  and  intonation,  as  with  ourselves ;  and  as  with 
us  of  the  Saxon,  Celtic,  Gaulish,  and  Teutonic  tongues,  one  vast  predominance 
of  faults.  Yet,  while  closely  listening  to  the  right,  the  wrong,  and  the  pecu- 
liar, I  heard  nothing  in  form,  or  even  in  quecrncss  or  exaggeration,  that  I  had 
not  heard  before.  In  short,  the  destined  swarthy  wanderer  of  the  Tropaganda, 
with  his  aimless  and  chaotic  efforts  in  speech,  and  the  accomplished  Queens  of 
song  from  the  Conservatorio,  with  their  unconscious  desecration,  so  to  speak, 
of  expression  in  Recitative,  are  more  nearly  assimilated,  in  these  vices  of  into- 
nation, than  their  diflFerence  in  complexion  and  in  glory  would  allow  the  pride 
of  the  Opera  to  acknowledge. 


496  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

this  essay,  I  have  referred  to  eminent,  as  ■well  as  to  exceptionahle 
examples,  in  the  vocal  practice  of  the  Stage.  The  Actor  holds 
the  first  and  most  observed  position  in  the  Art  of  Elocution,  and 
should  long  have  been  our  best  and  all-sufiicient  Master  in  its 
School.  The  Senate,  the  Pulpit,  and  the  Bar,  with  the  verbal 
means  of  argument  or  persuasion  almost  exclusively  before  them, 
have  so  earnestly,  or  artfully  pursued  these  leading  interests, 
that  they  have  not  observed,  nor  indeed  Tvished  to  observe,  how 
far  the  cultivated  powers  of  the  voice  might  have  assisted  the 
honest  or  the  ambitious  purpose  of  their  oratory.  But  with  the 
Stage,  speech  is,  in  itself,  the  means  and  the  end  of  Histrionic 
distinction ;  for  however  the  Actor  may  be  influenced  by  the 
desire  of  applause,  this  is  supposed  to  be  attainable,  only  through 
the  expressive  powers  of  his  voice.  It  has  therefore  been 
towards  the  Stage  alone,  that  criticism  has  shown  a  disposition, 
formally  to  direct  its  vague  and  limited  rules  of  vocal  propriety 
and  taste.  But  the  Stage  has  not  fulfilled  the  duties  of  its  posi- 
tion :  for  though  holding  the  highest  place  of  influential  exam- 
ple, and  enjoying  the  immediate  rewards  of  popularity,  it  has 
done  little  more  than  keep-up  the  tradition  of  its  business  and 
routine,  and  record  the  personal  debut,  engagements,  retire- 
ment, and  every  sort  of  anecdote  of  its  renowned  Performers ; 
without  turning  a  discriminating  ear  to  their  vocal  excellence, 
and  thereby  afibrding  available  instruction,  on  the  means  of 
their  success;  while  its  distinguished  Performers  themselves, 
through  all  generations,  appear  to  us  in  the  light  of  too  many 
others  in  exalted  stations,  who  have  not  so  much  desired  to 
fulfill  the  trusts  of  their  Stewardship,  as  to  acquire  wealth  and 
influence  and  distinction  for  themselves. 

For  this  particular  state  of  Histrionic  Art,  there  must  be  a 
cause ;  and  as  our  analysis  has  enabled  us  to  explain  the  nature 
of  some  fiiults  that  universally  infect  the  voice,  we  may  extend 
our  inquiry  to  the  causes,  why  elocution  has  not  been  able  to 
assume  an  intelligent,  systematic,  and  respected  authority  on  the 
Stage.  Speech  is  the  audible  sign  of  the  logical  powers  of  the 
mind,  as  well  as  of  its  individual  ideas ;  we  shall  therefore  find 
that  the  peculiar  faults  of  the  Stage  arise  from  a  somewhat  secta- 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  497 

rian  and  mystic  character  of  intellect  in  the  Actor.     I  therefore 
devote  a  few  remaining  pages  to  the  subject, 

Of  the  Faults  of  Stage-Personation.  The  most  general  and 
influential  cause  from  -which  many  of  the  faults  of  the  Actor 
seem  to  arise,  and  under  which  his  art  has  never  been  progres- 
sive, is  the  delusion,  so  fatal  to  a  just  and  practical  use  of  the 
mind,  that  his  purposes  are  effected  by  certain  'innate  powers,' 
or  'spiritual  gifts,'  far  beyond  all  common  influences  in  the 
works  of  men ;  that  so  far  from  following  the  plain  and  univer- 
sal course  of  thought  and  action,  the  expression  of  his  sense  and 
feeling,  like  the  vulgar  idea  of  the  creations  of  the  Poet,  are  the 
result  of  a  real  'phrensy'  of  thought,  of  countenance  and  of 
the  voice,- 

This  mysticism  of  the  school  of  acting  has,  as  far  as  I  under- 
stand it,  divided  its  eminent  disciples  into  two  classes.  The 
First  has  a  sort  of  dual  mesmeric  existence,  consisting,  at  one 
time,  of  its  common  animal  attributes  of  motion,  sensation  and 
thought ;  at  another,  of  the  spiritual  representation  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  poet.  In  one  of  these  lives,  the  actor  prepares 
for  his  part,  according  to  his  own  conception  of  it,  or  to  the 
traditionary  rules  of  the  Green  Room ;  and  for  his  scenic  rela- 
tionships to  the  rest  of  the  Company,  goes  to  Rehearsal,  with  his 
everyday  feeling,  speech,  and  apparel.  This  is  the  personal 
life  of  the  actor.  In  the  other  life  he  is  before  the  audience, 
and  has  entered  into  a  spiritual  existence  with  the  poet.  Here, 
all  self-perception  is  lost ;  he  is  sensible  to  nothing,  and  has  only 
an  indescribable  idea  of  the  commingling  of  his  own  enacting  soul, 
with  the  sentimental  and  rhetorical  soul  of  his  author ;  thus 
entering  with  him  into  one  co-efficient  expression  of  gesture, 
countenance  and  voice.  The  state  of  an  actor,  in  thus  losing 
his  consciousness  in  the  ideality  of  the  character,  is  called 
Identity.  And  as  well  as  I  can  understand  this  physical  and 
mental  condition,  the  actor  seems  to  think,  move,  and  speak  in  a 
peculiar  kind  of  Trance. 

The  Second  Class,  though  altogether  different  in  its  system 
from  that  of  Identity,  is  no  less  mystical  in  its  account  of  itself. 
But  as  I  do  not  comprehend  the  nature  of  that  unthinking  and 


498  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

unfeeling  machinery,  by  which  an  Actor  affects  an  audience,  I 
shall,  in  noticing  the  subject,  be  obliged  to  quote  the  words  of 
the  initiated,  who  pretend  to  describe  it. 

I  find  it  has  long  been  a  question  among  Actors  and  histrionic 
critics,  whether  he  who  excites  most  feeling  in  his  audience,  is 
necessarily  excited  and  directed  by  feeling  within  himself.  This 
Platonic,  and  therefore  disputatious  and  interminable  question, 
seems  so  clearly,  to  have  arisen  from  a  belief  in  the  '  Spirituality' 
of  Expression,  supported  by  a  determined  ignorance  of  its  de- 
scribable  forms  in  the  speaking  voice,  and  of  its  ordained 
instrumentality  in  the  purpose  of  thought  and  feeling,  that  I 
need  not  show,  by  our  present  light  of  analysis,  in  what  manner 
it  has  contributed  to  prevent  a  progressive  observation  of  the 
exact  and  beautiful  co-relation  between  the  mind  and  the  voice. 

The  maxim  of  Horace, '  if  you  wish  me  to  weep,  you  must 

yourself  first  feel  your  woes,'  has  so  far  either  convinced,  or 
misled  his  readers,  that  I  should  not  have  here  introduced  the 
subject  of  this  confounding  question,  if  I  had  not  met  with  the 
following  confounding  attempt  to  announce  it. 

'  The  actor  of  an  opposite  school'  says  the  Autobiography  of 
an  Actress,  chapter  thirteen,  '  if  he  be  a  thorough  artist,  is 
more  sure  of  producing  startling  efi"ects.  lie  stands  unmoved 
amidst  the  boisterous  seas,  the  whirlwinds  of  passion  swelling 
around  him.  He  exercises  perfect  command  over  the  emotions 
of  the  audience ;  seems  to  hold  their  heart-strings  in  his  hands, 
to  play  upon  their  sympathies,  as  on  an  instrument ;  to  electrify 
or  subdue  his  hearers  by  an  effort  of  volition ;  but  not  a  pulse 
in  his  own  frame,  beats  more  rapidly  than  its  wont.  His  per- 
sonifications are  cut  out  of  marble;  they  are  grand,  sublime, 
but  no  heart  throbs  within  the  life-like  sculpture.  Such  was 
the  school  of  the  great  Talma.  This  absolute  power  over  others, 
combined  with  perfect  self-command,  is  pronounced  by  a  certain 
class  of  critics,  the  perfection  of  dramatic  Art.'  And  then,  to 
show  the  difference  between  the  actor  who  draws  from  the  depth 
of  his  identical  soul,  and  him  who  only  appears  to  do  so,  we 
have  the  following  fact.  'I  have  acted  Avith  distinguished -trage- 
dians, who  after  some  significant  bursts  of  pathos,  which  seemed 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  499 

wrung  from  the  utmost  depths  of  the  soul,  while  the  audience 
were  deafening  themselves,  and  us,  with  their  frantic  applause, 
quietly  turned  to  their  brethren,  with  a  comical  grimace,  and  a 
few  muttered  words  of  satirical  humor,  that  caused  an  irresistible 
burst  of  laughter.'  The  reader,  if  he  looks  for  meaning  and 
precision  in  language,  must  say  for  himself,  what  all  this  account 
of  Great  Acting  means,  whether  in  the  school  of  Identity  or  of 
Talma.  To  me,  it  conveys  not  a  single  definite  idea  of  the 
kinds,  degrees,  purposes,  and  effects  of  thought  and  passion,  nor 
of  the  nature  and  management  of  the  personal  and  vocal  signs 
that  express  them.* 

•  An  Actor,  or  Personator  on  the  Stage,  •whatever  his  fictional  school  may 
t^ach,  can  no  more,  intellectually  and  passionately,  believe  or  feel  himself  to 
be  the  character  he  represents,  than  he  can  feel  the  pain  of  his  friend,  or  taste 
the  food  that  gratifies  him.  If  he  should  in  mind, —  for  he  cannot  in  person, — 
be,  or  appear  to  himself  to  be  another,  he  must,  in  mind,  cease  to  be  himself: 
and  therefore  cannot,  in  thought  and  passion,  become  another,  except,  if  even 
that  is  possible,  in  delirium  or  a  dream.  Nor  is  there  the  least  necessity  that 
he  should,  in  acting,  appear  to  himself  to  be  another,  in  order  to  act  well. 
Wicked  and  foolish  as  man  is  in  most  of  his  affairs,  it  -would  be  appalling  to 
think  what  he  might  be,  if  human  nature  had  not  been  made,  in  all  things 
and  everywhere  alike.  We  are  therefore  identical  with  one  another ;  without 
its  being  a  peculiar  effort  of  genius  in  a  Player  to  feign  himself  so.  Difference 
from  the  rest  of  the  world  in  observation  and  thought,  which  are  the  charm  of 
life,  is  rare;  but  in  feeling  and  passion,  which  are  almost  the  life  itself  of  man, 
it  is  impossible.  If  by  internal  motive,  or  external  impression,  we  are  excited 
into  passion,  we  must  show  or  enact  it,  in  like  manner  as  it  is  done  by 
others.  For  though  there  may  be  some  variation  in  degree  and  character,  the 
passion  itself  is  in  nature  and  effect  similar  in  all. 

It  is  not  necessary  then,  to  'enter  into'  or  feel  the  passion  of  another;  we 
are  already  in  it,  by  a  similar  constitution :  and  have  only  to  feel  and  express 
it  as  our  own,  when  it  is  excited  within  us  by  sound  or  sight ;  whether  of  the 
voice  of  the  orator,  or  the  written  language  of  the  historian  and  the  poet. 

For  illustration,  let  us  suppose  an  Actor  to  have  the  education,  thought, 
feeling,  and  physical  means  for  expression,  of  the  best  of  his  class ;  and  to 
enact  the  part  of  Hamlet,  before  the  Ghost  of  his  Father.  lie  has  then  in  his 
mind,  the  thoughts  of  doubt  or  disbelief,  of  inquiry,  and  of  the  supernatural 
event  before  him.  1\\q  feelings  that  affect  and  absorb, —  not  entrance  him, — 
are  horror,  astonishment,  reverence,  affection,  and  revenge.  These,  cither 
from  Nature  or  from  habit,  are  so  at  command,  '  that  a  man  might  play'  them, 
by  '  forcing  his  soul  to  its  own  conceit,'  not  into  Identity  with  the  conceit  or 
conception  of  another:  for  as  far  as  they  have  been  experienced,  and  no 
farther,  can  they  be  expressed.     Np  one  has  felt  them,  in  the  case  before  us, 


500 


FAULTS  OF  READERS. 


In  seeking  instruction  from  others,  not  only  in  philosophy, 
but  in  the  higher  poetry,  for  even  this  has  taught  me  much  of 
nature,  and  more  of  the  human  mind,  I  have  so  accustomed 
myself  to  regard  the  plain  foot-prints  of  traceable  description, 
that  my  comprehension  is  often  at  fault,  in  the  trackless  pursuit 
of  a  metaphysical  meaning ;  whether  in  the  mischievous  visions 
of  Plato,  with  his  'arithmetic  mediums,'  and  his  'procreations 
of  the  soul;'    in  the   equally  incomprehensible  ravings  of  his 


with  the  vividness  of  life,  but  the  supposed  once-existing  Hamlet :  and  there- 
fore the  Actor  may  raise  within  himself  a  certain  form  and  degree  of  those 
thoughts  and  feelings,  but  cannot  become  identical  with  Hamlet,  even  if  good 
acting  should  require  it.  He  is  then  only  identical,  so  to  speak,  with  himself, 
upon  the  common  forms  and  degrees  of  his  own  feeling  and  thought.  • 

Comparing  the  term  Identity  with  a  plain  description  of  thought  and  feeling, 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  made  from  mistaken  and  visionary  ideas,  carelessly 
formed  out  of  this  simple  purpose  and  fact  of  Stage-Personation :  —  that  th« 
state  of- mind  ascribed  to  a  character  by  the  poet,  is  through  the  actor, —  a 
man  of  like  passions  with  the  character, —  to  be  represented  by  his  own 
•thoughts  and  feelings ;  either  really  excited  to  the  exact  condition  of  those  of 
the  character,  which  seems  impossible ;  or  simulated  to  an  available  degree  by 
his  self-possessed  eflFort,  and  not  by  his  trying  io  forget  himself,  and  in  thought 
and  feeling,  to  become  another. 

How  far,  in  the  case  before  us,  the  Actor  is  to  become  identical  with  the 
Poet,  is  another  subject  for  consideration :  and  this  leads  to  the  inquiry,  how 
far  Shakspeare  designed  to  identify  himself  in  thought  and  feeling  with  the 
thinking  and  suffering  of  the  once-existing  Hamlet.  The  cases  are  similar:  for 
as  the  poet  is  to  the  person,  so  should  the  actor  be  to  the  poet.  I  have  nothing 
to  say  here,  on  what  a  poet  might  imfigine  of  himself:  for  he  may  have  his 
delusions  of  Genius,  as  well  as  the  actor.  But  when  an  actor  adopts  the  cos- 
tume of  his  character,  together  with  the  language  of  his  thoughts  and  feelings  ; 
and  has  to  move  and  to  speak  like  him,  he  might  seem  to  himself  to  have 
some  slight  reason  for  believing,  against  his  senses,  that  he  is  the  very  charac- 
ter :  like  Christopher  Sly  in  the  Play,  who,  with  so  many  persuaders  towards  his 
delusion,  exclaims  at  last, '  Upon  my  life,  I  am  a  Lord  indeed.'  But  how  can  the 
poet  find  a  point  of  approach  to  similarity,  much  less  enter  into  Identity  with 
his  character,  whether  original  or  adopted,  when  spreading  his  imagination,  he 
gradually  and  line  by  line,  selects  from  its  amplitude :  and  roaming,  in  his 
associations,  after  everything,  returns  with  a  gathered  choice  of  thoughts, 
characters,  manners,  imagery,  and  language :  and  all  this  effected  in  time,  and 
succession,  by  a  Shakspeare,  identical  with  his  own  classifying  power  and  its 
taste.  What  has  he,  in  drawing  the  character  of  Hamlet,  to  do  with  cofitracl- 
ing  himself  into  a  fixed  and  momentary  identity  with  such  a  passing  personage 
as  a  former  Prince  of  Denmark  ? 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  5QI 

later  pupil  Jacob  Behmen ;  or  in  the  unassignable  ideas  of  his- 
trionic principles  and  criticism.  But  though  we  may  be  unable 
to  follow  the  mystic  notions  of  the  schools  of  acting,  and  to  say 
how  far  they  go  ;  it  is  not  so  difficult,  with  a  little  patience  on 
the  part  of  the  reader,  to  inform,  or  remind  him  whence  they 
are  derived. 

The  Greeks,  unfortunately  in  some  things  our  teachers,  re- 
ceived so  much  of  their  Philosophical  Fiction  from  Egypt  and 
the  East,  that  it  is  impossible  to  say,  to  what  extent  they  invented, 
or  how  far  they  only  altered  and  dressed-up  the  fable :  yet  it 
is  certain,  that  having  adopted  the  imposition,  they  afterwards 
blindly  went  along  with  it.  It  was  according  to  the  infirm  and 
fruitless  purposes  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  that  while  they 
desired  to  know,  they  could  not  find  the  way,  or  would  not  take 
the  pains  to  learn.  Perceiving,  what  time  and  labor  were  neces- 
sary for  understanding  the  frame  and  laws  of  nature,  by  the 
tedious  use  of  the  senses,  they  resolved  to  accomplish  it  more 
easily  by  a  mental  process.  Assuming  then,  from  the  human 
method  of  Design  and  Construction,  that  the  world  was  made 
from  an  ideal  design,  or  what  they  called  a  Pattern-Form  of 
that  world,  previously  existing  in  the  mind  of  the  Creator; 
and  that  the  mind  of  man,  being  made  in  the  image  of  the 
Creative-Mind,  Avas  thus  a  humble  finite  offspring  of  its  all- 
glorious  infinity  :  And  further,  observing, — ■  for  they  did  add  a 
useless  mite  of  experience  to  their  fictions, —  really  observing,  I 
say,  the  human  mind  to  be  capable  of  unlimited  improvement, 
they  thereupon  fancied,  that  in  abstracting  itself  from  the  con- 
taminatin"-  company  of  the  senses,  as  well  as  from  all  other 
disturbing  influences  of  this  mortal  life,  it  might,  by  a  long  and 
contemplative  exercise  of  its  own  powers  on  its  uncorrupted  self, 
—  hopefully  ascend  toAvards  the  Creative  Mind,  and  reach  at 
last,  its  Parent-state  of  intellectual  perfection,  and  immortality : 
that  the  mind  thus  purified,  returning  to  its  omnicient  Father, 
and  being  made  partaker  of  his  knowledge,  might  come  at  last, 
to  behold  the  pattern-forms  of  creation,  and  by  access  to  the 
constructive  designs,  be  able  to  comprehend  the  plan,  the  pur- 
pose  and  the    workmanship  of   all   things.       This  process    of 


502  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

Contemplation,  one  of  Plato's,  so  called,  sublime  ideas,  was  a 
pi'oduct,  and  part  of  the  essence  of  what  the  Greeks  termed  the 
First  Philosophy :  now  indeed  to  us,  first  and  greatest  in  pre- 
tension, but  last  and  least,  in  usefulness  and  truth ;  and  which, 
if  not  originally  contrived  to  impose  on  ignorance,  did  subse- 
quently pervert  the  mind  to  that  state  of  theoretic  credulity,  by 
which  it  still  imposes  on  itself. 

It  was  this,  together  with  other  distracting  imaginations  of 
the  First  Philosophy,  that  so  early  and  so  fatally  confused  and 
corrupted  the  now,  abas !  irrestorable  simplicity  of  the  Christian 
Religion ;  a  religion  intended  by  its  Author  to  be  practically  a 
general  moral  blessing;  and  — in  discarding  the  quarrelsome  ver- 
bosity of  the  Grecian  School, —  to  embrace  an  uncontentious 
Logic,  with  its  decisive  meaning  of  Yea  or  iVrt?/,  for  those  who 
have  '  ears  to  hear'  unworried  truth :  not  a  religion  of  Platonic 
figments,  and  Aristotelian  quibbles,  for  those  who  pluck  out 
their  eyes,  and  deafen  their  ears  to  the  unarguing  brevity  of 
those  two  short  verdict-words  of  Belief  or  Denial ;  and  who  by 
rejecting  this  unsophistic,  this  all-suflficient,  this  conclusive  and 
this  peaceful  Logic  of  the  Original  Christianity,  have  given 
themselves  up,  universally  and  world-without-end  to  wrangle  and 
to  hate. 

It  was  this  that  withdrew  the  Platonic  Pietist  from  the  visible 
world,  to  contemplate  with  inward  but  with  filmy  eyes,  his  own 
fanatic  selfishness ;  thereby  to  raise  himself  to  a  communion 
with  angels  and  saints,  at  the  right  hand  of  his  maker ;  and  to 
proclaim,  with  audacious  triumph,  his  accomplished  Beatitude. 
This,  that  led  the  Hermit  and  the  Monk  to  Platonic  war  against 
the  senses ;  to  retreat  to  the  savage  wilderness,  and  the  Cell,  be- 
fore the  overpowering  civilization  of  their  truth ;  and  to  seek  a 
refuge  at  last,  by  trying  to  thmk,  and  to  mortify  themselves  into 
Heaven.  The  Greeks  began  their  philosophical  but  foolish  pur- 
pose, with  only  disregarding  the  Logic  of  the  Senses.  The 
religious  Anchorite,  following  up  his  Platonic  creed,  ended  with 
the  Impious  attempt  to  thwart  the  purpose  of  his  God,  in  ordain- 
ing its  supremacy. 

It  is  the  idea  of  this  irreligious  sunderinj:  of  heaven  from  the 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  5O3 

universe  of  sensible  things,  that '  God  has  joined  together,'  which 
still  haunts  the  narrow-minded  Bigot ;  who  under  the  venerable 
authority  of  his  Pagan  philosophy,  continues  to  separate  the 
senses  from  contemplation  :  but  which,  in  the  fulness  of  wisdom, 
and  of  works,  the  beneficent  Bacon,  in  mental  saviourship,  has 
taught  us  to  reunite.  It  is  this  contemplation,  still  uncontrolled 
by  sense,  and  thus  falling  into  visions,  that  enables  every  new 
Sectarian  Leader,  to  imagine  his  o"\vn  way  to  the  will  of  his 
maker,  and  to  bring  back  from  his  own  egotistical  invention, 
another,  and  still  another  message  of  grace ;  and  thus  to  over- 
fill the  world  with  discord  and  with  dreams. 

It  is  a  modification  of  this  system,  that  makes  the  Physician, 
of  Every  School,  pretend  to  see  with  his  mind's  eye,  and  that 
a  blind  one,  those  fictions  of  invisible  causation,  in  the  human 
body,  which  produce  the  infinite  succession  of  quarrelsome 
speculations,  the  ever-varied  Nomenclature,  and  the  never-satis- 
fying Practice  of  his  Dogmatic  Art ;  yet  so  inseparable  from  the 
weakness  and  indecision,  always  co-existent  in  the  mind  with 
fictional  and  fashionable  changes  in  opinion. 

It  is  to  the  universality  of  this  vice  of  thinking  and  believing 
without  the  Mastership  of  the  senses,  that,  according  to  our  igno- 
rance, or  our  ill  use  of  knowledge,  we  have  the  whole  book  of 
Platonic  Spiritualism  still  before  us  ;  whether  in  the  dates  and 
postponements  of  Millennial  Prophets;  in  raising  Phantoms  of  the 
dead ;  or  in  the  Epicurean  doctrine  of  atoms,  revived  in  modern 
chemistry,  with  no  other  prospect  than  that  of  giving  way  in 
time,  to  some  new  supposition. 

And  finally,  it  is  this  Vice  that  must  explain  the  idealism  of 
the  Tragedian,  in  his  attempt  to  describe  his  own  conception  of 
his  characters,  and  of  himself. 

If  there  is  no  reason  for  a  work, —  reason  being  here,  only 
the  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,— there  can  be  neither  begin- 
ning nor  end  to  the  work ;  and  if  there  are  not  good  reasons, 
there  can  be  no  excellence.  Nature  certainly  has  the  best  rea- 
sons for  her  work,  and  although  she  never  tells  them,  except 
through  her  spontaneous  actions,  or  through  solicited  and 
experimental  signs,  she  does  not  always  prevent  our  findijig 


50-4  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

them  out.  An  Actor  may  have  very  good  reasons  for  all  his 
ends,  and  some  efficacious  system  for  self-instruction ;  hut  as  he 
never  has  satisfactorily  told  them,  we  must,  as  in  the  case  of 
nature,  be  contented,  if  he  does  not  prevent  our  efforts  to  ascer- 
tain them.  Without  therefore  positively  asserting, —  he  has  no 
means  of  instructing  himself,  or  of  being  instructed,  beyond  his 
common  school  of  Imitation,  we  may,  if  unable  to  discover  his 
reasons  or  principles,  particularly  on  the  subject  of  the  voice, 
be  allowed  to  state  our  view  of  the  causes  why,  with  an  excep- 
tion of  some  local  routine,  and  the  business  of  the  stage,  he  has 
none,  above  the  instincts  of  gesture,  countenance,  and  voice, 
common  to  him  and  the  rest  of  his  company.  One  important 
general  cause  of  this  mediocrity,  is  the  too  frequent  absence, 
from  a  public  audience,  of  those  watchful  masters.  Knowledge 
and  Taste ;  masters  who  make  greatness,  wherever  they  rule, 
because  they  will  have  nothing  else ;  and  who  in  passing  judg- 
ment on  the  faults  and  merits  of  an  actor,  teach  him  at  the 
same  time,  to  know  himself.  We  will  however  endeavor  to 
show  particularly,  not  only  why  he  has  not  a  deep  and 
thorough  knowledge  of  very  important  requisites  in  his  art,  but 
also,  why  the  circumstances  which  affect  him,  render  it  almost 
necessary  that  it  should  be  so. 

In  the  First  place  then,  the  vocation  itself  of  an  actor  is  apt  to 
over-occupy,  and  therefore  to  thwart  his  mind,  with  memorial 
efforts  upon  words ;  and  with  a  perpetual  and  varied  succession 
of  thoughts  and  sentiments,  strongly  excited  for  the  moment, 
but  too  fugitive  to  become  consciously  familiar,  or  directively 
useful  in  the  higher  designs  of  expression :  and  therefore  not 
calculated  to  lead  his  purpose  or  inquiriy,  beyond  the  common 
topics  of  his  art. 

Second.  The  whole  mind  of  an  Actor,  with  all  its  sensibili- 
ties, is  involved  in  the  disturbing  interest  of  his  success.  His 
success  is  measured  by  public  applause,  and  public  applause,  in 
any  case,  does  not  always  help  the  mind,  even  on  the  subject  of 
its  ambition  ;  but  is  apt  to  weaken  its  power,  and  prevent  its 
advancement  in  everything  else. 

Third.     The  actor,  by  that  necessary  law  of  a  wholesome  and 


FAULTS  OF  READERS. 


)05 


a  happy  life,  Tvhicli  directs  us  all  to  some  physical  or  intellectual 
industry,  goes  to  the  stage,  in  nearly  every  instance,  as  a  means 
of  support ;  allured  in  the  unreflective  period  of  youth,  by  a 
dream  of  prospects  and  hope,  rather  than  by  a  view  of  the 
influential  realities  and  important  consequences  of  his  choice  ; 
and  beset  by  an  early  and  restless  ambition  to  be  known,  neces- 
sarily most  urgent  with  him  who,  while  he  is  unknown  to  others, 
will,  very  probably  be  unknown  to  himself;  of  a  temperament, 
not  always  sedate  and  steady,  nor  extended  or  permanent  enough 
in  its  purposes,  to  form  the  habit  of  looking  into  things  as  they 
are,  and  of  fairly  estimating  the  difficulties  of  a  task.  '  Oh,  I 
never  think  so  nicely  as  that,'  said  an  actress, —  whom  the 
populace  of  two  Hemispheres  had,  for  awhile,  bewildered  by 
the  whole  nomenclature  of  eulogy, —  to  one,  who  remarked  that 
singing  might  be  as  articulate  as  speech. 

Now,  as  it  is  much  easier,  gradually  to  change  a  vague  per- 
ception into  positive  error,  than  to  work-up  strict  and  compre- 
hensive observation  into  truth,  it  is  almost  conclusive,  that  minds 
born,  or  fashioned  by  circumstances,  to  the  condition  we  have 
just  described,  would  turn  from  the  labor  of  cultivating  the 
united  powers  of  observation  and  thought,  to  the  amusement  of 
indulging  a  fancy,  and  thus  become  a  prey  to  the  sophistry  of 
Platonic  fiction,  or  as  it  is  now  called,  '  Ideality' or  Transcenden- 
tal thought.  And  such  appears  to  be  the  state  of  mind,  as  far  as 
they  have  explained  it,  of  that  class  of  actors,  who  surrounding 
themselves  with  visions  of  enthusiastic  feeling,  perform  their 
part  by  the  mystic  means  of  Identity. 

I  can  say  nothing  of  the  nature  or  origin  of  the  other  Class, 
that  electrifies  its  hearers,  by  '  volition,'  whose  '  grand  and  sub- 
lime personations  are  cut  out  of  marble:'  and  though  without 
a  '  heart-throb  of  its  own  within  its  life-like  sculpture,'  yet  stirs 
up  its  audience,  to  '  deafening'  themselves  with  their  frantic 
applause.  Its  power  is  indeed  wonderful,  but  its  ways,  means, 
nature  and  effect,  are  entirely  beyond  my  understanding:  for  to 
me,  the  preceding  account  of  the  two  classes  of  actors,  and  of 
their  different  styles,  taken  from  their  own  dreams  about  them- 
selves, contains  not  one  assignable  image  in  description,  not  one 
33 


506  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

useful  word  of  instruction,  and  nothing  but  words,  in  the  purposes 
of  histrionic  criticism.  Supposing  then,  the  difficulty  or  impos- 
sibility of  our  comprehending  the  above  description  of  the  two 
great  classes  of  Acting,  to  be  as  strict  a  consequence  of  its 
obscurity,  as  if  it  was  designed  to  be  unintelligible :  how  are 
we  to  disenchant  their  Actors  of  the  magical,  not  to  say  miracu- 
lous power  of  being  unconsciously  incomprehensible,  with  which 
the  '  Genius  of  the  Lamp'  of  innate  and  self-sufficient  light  has 
seemed  to  endow  them  ?  Simply  by  removing  their  halucina- 
tions  about  '  Identity'  and  '  Inspiration ;'  by  inviting  them 
down  from  '  the  realms  of  cloud-land,  where  they  dwell  with 
the  ideal  creations  of  the  poet;'  and  by  teaching  them  so  clearly 
the  signs  of  thought,  and  feeling,  that  whatever  is  truly  de- 
scribed from  their  own  thoughts  and  feelings,  if  representable  by 
by  countenance,  gesture,  and  voice,  will  be  distinctly  conveyed 
to  others. 

Since  then  the  Obscrvative  Philosophy, —  the  Real  Author  of 
this  M'ork,  under  my  humble  name, —  has  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Actor,  furnished  the  materials  for  a  better  condition  of  his  art, 
let  the  Actor  listen  for  a  moment,  to  the  Observative  Philosophy. 
All  that  has  been  gropingly  sought  through  the  spirituality  of 
Plato,  and  the  Actor-ism  of  the  Stage,  may  be  thus  set  down  in 
the  clear  Baconian  Logic  of  the  Senses.  An  actor,  in  his  per- 
sonifications, is  not  a  'disembodied  being  of  cloud-land'  'kindled 
by  Promethean  fire'  and  '  taking  the  audience  by  storm ;'  with 
'an  upward  gaze,'  and  in  contempt  of  sensible  things,  'treading 
external  circumstances  beneath  his  feet.'  He  is,  though  he  may 
not  admit  our  classification,  like  the  rest  of  us,  an  earthly  animal, 
of  flesh  and  blood ;  with  the  means  of  moving,  thinking,  feeling, 
and  speaking  ;  whi  :h  he  is  visibly  and  audibl}'^  to  use  with  intelli- 
gence and  taste.  The  thoughts  he  is  to  deliver,  are  set  down  in 
his  part,  and  are  plainly  communicable,  by  grammatical  and 
appropriate  speech.  The  sentiments  or  passions  he  has  to  ex- 
press, are  declared  or  implied  in  the  words  of  his  author.  These 
sentiments,  at  least  all  that  can,  and  ought  to  be  represented, 
are  common  to  mankind,  and  are  therefore  readily  excited  in 
an  audience,  by  their  well  known  sensible  signs. 


FAULTS  OF  READERS.  597 

The  actor  being  thus  kept  down  to  the  level  of  humanity,  on 
the  points  of  thought  and  feeling;  the  Baconian  method  of 
working  out  truth,  by  observation,  proceeds  to  the  manner  of 
expressing  them.  This  is  shown  in  the  person,  the  countenance, 
and  the  voice. 

Spiritualism  has  never  gone  so  far,  as  to  assume  the  mystical 
direction  of  personal  Gesture.  The  exalted,  the  downcast,  the 
averted,  the  assenting  and  dissenting  head:  the  hastv,  the 
dignified,  and  the  starting  step,  the  fixed,  and  the  supplosive 
foot :  with  the  chironomy  of  the  arm,  in  its  unnumbered  mean- 
ings, are  all,  in  their  consonance  of  character  and  expression 
with  the  countenance,  and  the  voice,  no  more  than  obvious 
muscular  movements,  taught  by  nature  and  experience,  and 
exercised  with  propriety  and  taste. 

In  the  countenance,  the  Baconian  eye  of  observation  sees 
nothing  in  character  and  expression,  but  physical  form  and 
movement,  together  with  the  smooth  and  the  wrinkled,  the 
white  and  the  red ;  all  so  plainly  associated  with  their  respective 
thought  and  passion,  that  your  dog,  happily  freed  from  Phitonic 
fancies,  in  a  moment  understands  them  in  your  face.  But  here 
the  actor  begins  to  raise  his  '  Perturbing  Spirit ;'  and  not  con- 
tented with  nature's  own  physical  sufficiency  for  his  sentimental 
wants,  and  which,  if  left  to  itself,  would  accomplish  all  his  face 
is  fit  for,  only  forces  it  to  the  distortion  of  'electrifying  looks,' 
by  '  throwing  his  soul'  into  his  eyes,  and  nose,  and  mouth,  and 
brow;  and  perhaps,  in  violence  to  the  just  expression  of  well- 
closed  lips,  even  into  the  grinning  of  his  very  teeth. 

And  what  does  the  Baconian  observer  find  in  the  Actor's 
voice?  He  hears  that  some  of  his  words  are  of  longer  quantity 
than  others ;  some  more  forcibly  pronounced ;  some  are  harsh, 
others  smooth  ;  some  acute,  others  grave  :  in  short  he  hears,  not 
in  his  souVs  ear,  but  physically  hears,  the  Modes  of  quality, 
force,  time,  abruptness  and  pitch,  with  their  various  forms, 
degrees,  and  practical  distinctions,  detiiiled  throughout  this 
work  ;  by  one,  who  though  perhaps  estimated  but  as  a  pupil  of 
a  lower  Form,  in  the  Baconian  school,  is  yet  happy  in  its  picsent, 
and  looks  with  hopeful  patience  to  its  future  tasks.     But  with 


508  FAULTS  OF  READERS. 

all  these  phenomena  within  hearing,  and  only  unrecognized  be- 
cause unnamed,  the  Platonic  Thinker,  seeking  something  above 
vulgar  sensation,  has  by  imaginary  'movements  of  the  spirit' 
and  figments  of  '  occult  causes,'  not  only  prevented  his  own 
spontaneous  perception  of  the  vocal  phenomena,  but  worse  still, 
has  so  far  contributed  to  obtund, —  as  fictional  habits  generally 
do — both  sense  and  intellect,  as  not  to  let  him  listen,  much  less 
attempt  to  understand,  when  told  by  others, —  the  Expression  of 
Speech  is  only  one  part  of  measurable  and  describable  physical 
nature. 

Upon  all  that  has  been  said,  perhaps  some  of  those  who  would 
degrade  the  Fine  Art  of  Acting,  to  a  level  with  the  visionary 
psychology  of  our  poetic  Young  Ladies,  may  ask  if  we  have  not 
given  a  too  prosaic,  or  *  matter  of  fact,'  account  of  the  material 
and  formal  causes  of  this  art  ?  What  is  to  become  of  the  actor's 
grandeur,  pathos  and  grace,  if  they  are  to  be  deduced  from 
physical,  and  not  from  spiritual  causes  ?  A\^e  answer,  that  with 
those  sentiments  within  him,  the  proper  use,  whether  from  nature 
or  education,  of  the  physical  means  for  vocal  and  personal  ex- 
pression, will,  under  our  observative  system,  display  those 
sentiments  with  more  uniformity,  and  consequently  with  more 
force  :  for  the  expression  not  depending  on  the  individual  caprice 
of  visionary  personations,  will  have  a  more  invariable  character, 
and  therefore  be  more  clearly  and  generally  understood.  To  me 
however,  the  reason  is  not  apparent  why  the  soul  of  poetry, 
under  the  fancies  of  Identity,  should  be  brought  into  Stage- 
Personation,  more  than  into  any  other  art.  Why  should  not 
the  Sculptor,  Painter  and  Architect,  when  they  studiously,  and 
choicely  complete  their  designs,  and  then  practically  execute 
them  with  propriety  and  taste,  claim  to  have  this  mysterious 
light  of  poetical  inspiration  ?  We  once  heard  of  a  Frenchman, 
who  never  could  have  made  a  certain  miniature  shoe,  but  in  'a 
moment  of  enthusiasm.'  And  it  has  long  been  a  by-word  of 
the  concentrative  influence  of  a  Shefiield  work-shop,  that  a 
button-maker,  as  a  '  glaring  instance'  of  Identity,  does  in  time 
become  a  very  Button.  And  such  notions  are  no  less  unintel- 
ligible of  an  Actor  than  of  him. 


FAULTS   OP  READERS.  509 

The  Fine  Arts  are  reputed  to  be  sisters  ;  and  they  are  of  one 
family,  so  far  as  they  draw  their  being  from  one  source  of  know- 
ledge and  of  principles,  in  the  mind :  but  any  attempt  to  wed 
two  of  them  into  one,  would  be  quite  new  and  strange  to  nature, 
and  a  very  odd  idea  among  themselves.  Somebody  once  made 
a  doubtful  metaphor,  in  calling  Dancing,  the  'poetry  of  motion.' 
It  wants  just  as  much,  the  clear  picturing  of  a  true  and  con- 
sistent trope,  while  it  is  altogether  out  of  place,  in  serious 
discourse,  to  speak  of  the  Poetry  of  the  Stage.  It  has  had  too, 
the  effect  on  unthinking  Actors,  and  on  Critic's  who  should 
think,  to  turn  their  attention,  from  the  assignable  merits  of  the 
art,  by  confusing  that  attention  Avith  the  mysticism  of  its  present 
condition ;  and  to  encourage  the  weak-minded,  to  gossip  with 
others,  as  well  as  to  enter  into  their  own  reveries,  about  the 
'  magical  and  dreamy  influence  of  passion.'  If  poetry,  flimsy, 
spirit-woven  poetry  I  mean,  belongs  to  the  Action  of  the  Stage, 
then  with  the  reciprocity  of  a  metaphor,  we  might  say  —  the 
Action  of  the  stage  belongs  to  poetical  soaring,  even  in  its 
transcendental  flights ;  which  is  absurd. 

Let  me  ask  one  question  of  the  dramatic  mystagogue, 
whether  critic  or  actor;  for  if  not  of  one  party,  they  would 
soon  go  their  way  from  each  other.  Whence  does  the  poet,  yes 
emphatically  for  this  case,  the  Poet, —  who  being  a  participant- 
spirit  in  stage  Identity,  should  in  his  own  art  be  a  bright  exam- 
ple,—  whence  does  he  draw  the  thoughts  and  sentiments,  with 
their  grandeur,  pathos,  and  grace,  that  the  actor  in  his  cloud  of 
idealism,  has  only  at  second  hand,  to  express  ?  Ask  the  Homers, 
the  Virgils,  the  Shakspeare,  the  Milton,  the  Thomsons,  the 
Popes,  and  the  Cowpers,  in  their  various  schools:  and  from 
their  unmystified  delineation  of  nature  and  of  life,  their  analo- 
gies, all  drawn  at  last,  from  that  physical  nature  alone,  not 
poetically  sung,  but  clearly  spoken  to  the  ear  in  vivid  repre- 
sentation of  the  objects  of  every  other  sense,  and  learn  how 
they  have  become  to  us, —  through  the  recognized  exactness  of 
their  bright  and  exalted  pictures, —  the  Baconian  philosophers 
of  fiction,  and  the  great  '  Secretaries'  of  nature  and  art ;  record- 
ing with  illuminated  faithfulness,  the  history  of  existing,  and  of 


510  CONCLUSION. 

possible,  but  not  of  pretending  truths.  They  copied,  each  in 
his  own  hand,  what  was,  and  what  had  been :  and  set  down  even 
what  might  be,  with  the  clearness  of  a  waking  and  a  written 
thought.  Let  then  the  infatuated  aspirant  of  Stage-Personifica- 
tion, who  thinks  we  have  been  too  prosaic  about  his  Genius, 
learn  through  his  poetic  Masters,  from  whom  he  must  draw  the 
whole  —  or  it  would  only  be  the  pantomimic  —  soul  of  his  enact- 
ing, how  they  performed  their  parts  of  grandeur,  pathos,  and 
grace,  through  all  the  breadth  and  depth  of  passion  :  without 
any  real  'nightly  visits  of  the  muse  ;'  with  no  '  extacies'  of  the 
Delphian  Tripod  ;  no  '  stirring  the  waters  of  the  soul'  to  a  state 
of  poetic  Identity ;  but  on  a  humble  seat  perhaps,  and  without 
enchantment,  drawing  their  '  goodly  thoughts'  and  natural  senti- 
ments, from  life  and  books,  and  things  unwritten ;  with  the 
privilege  of  exalting  the  realities  of  nature  to  perfectional 
degrees  of  the  beautiful,  and  the  sublime. 


Here  I  finish  the  history  of  the  speaking  voice.  I  have 
therein,  as  the  reader  may  perceive,  pretended  to  record  no 
anecdotal  wonders :  no  magnifying  traditions  of  how  far  Wliit- 
field  could  be  heard :  no  prodigies  of  earliest  infant  speech :  no 
ultra  case  of  a  stammerer,  who  could  not  be  even  heard  at  all  : 
no  echo  past  counting ;  nor  ventriloquism  past  belief.  I  have 
paid  more  respect  to  the  reader,  than  to  invite  him  on  to  serious 
knowledge,  by  the  detail  of  wonderful  and  '  startling'  facts ; 
but  have  endeavored  to  set  before  him,  an  instructive  story  from 
nature ;  whose  wisdom  being  the  highest  of  all  generalities,  is, 
if  it  admits  the  term,  a  single  wonder,  uncompared. 

It  has  been  my  design  throughout  this  work  to  subject 
nature  to  a  studious  examination ;  and  by  the  simple  but  sufli- 
cient  rule  of  the  senses,  to  unfold  her  supposed  mysteries  with 
philosophic  precision.  How  far  this  has  been  accomplished,  the 
intelligent  reader  must  determine :  with  that  allowance  for 
minor  errors,  which  the  historian  of  nature  has  perhaps,  in  an 
arduous  task  like  this,  a  right  to  claim,  and  which  the  liberal 
and  reflective  critic,  who  may  have  been  told  of  the  inscrutable 
Intonations  of  speech,  will  not  refuse. 


I 


CONCLUSION. 


511 


Those  to  whom  the  subject  of  Elocution,  in  its  higher  meaning, 
is  new,  will  receive  this  history  without  prejudice ;  and  though 
they  may  not  have  occasion  for  its  practical  rules,  will  still 
admire  the  beautiful  economy  of  nature,  in  the  structure  of 
speech.  Those  who  have  spent  a  life  of  labor,  by  the  little 
light,  as  yet  set  up  in  the  art,  and  who  are  too  proud  or  dull  to 
take  on  a  new  mind,  with  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  will 
at  least  learn  from  this  essay,  the  deJBciencies  of  the  old  scheme 
of  instruction,  even  though  they  may  not  admit  that  these  defi- 
ciencies are  here  supplied.  If  the  development  now  offered, 
were  a  mere  addition  to  the  art,  persons  of  this  last  class  might 
lie  able  to  discover  traces  of  their  former  opinions,  and  thereby 
Iiave  some  reason  for  admitting  it.  But  finding  here,  the  history 
uf  what  may  seem  to  be  a  new  creation,  they  may  reject  it  alto- 
gether, because  they  cannot  recognize  the  definitions,  divisions, 
rules,  and  illustrations  of  their  familiar  school-books  of  elocution. 

HoAvever  Philosophy  and  Taste  may  admire  the  Wisdom  and 
T5eauty  in  the  Natural  system  of  the  voice,  which  we  have 
endeavored  to  describe,  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  curiosity  only, 
if  it  does  not  lead  to  some  Practical  application.  I  have  there- 
fore endeavored,  on  the  unalterable  foundation  of  our  physiological 
liistory,  to  establish  a  system  of  directive  principles,  and  of  ele- 
mentary instruction. 

If  we  draw  an  inference  from  prevalent  opinions,  we  must 
believe,  the  varying  styles  of  a  good  elocution  are  endless ;  for 
every  one  with  self-satisfaction  thinks  he  reads  well,  and  yet  all 
read  differently.  There  is  however,  under  a  varied  application 
of  just  principles,  but  one  style  of  reading-well :  and  we  now 
have  our  warrant  from  a  knowledge  of  the  voice,  to  show,  that 
nature  herself,  and  not  the  usage  of  the  school,  will  furnish  in 
every  case,  the  effective  principles  of  that  only  style. 

Without  some  acknowledged  principles  in  Elocution,  there  can 
be  none  of  that  fellowship  in  method  which  so  powerfully  assists 
in  the  advancement  of  an  art.  Although  nature  may  have 
ordained  certain  sounds  as  signs  of  thought  and  feeling,  yet 
differences  in  practice  tend  to  confound  her  purposes  and  weaken 
her  authority.     If  some  uniform  system  of  the  voice  be  insti- 


512  CONCLUSION. 

tuted,  similarity  of  kno^yleclge  ■will  insure  greater  accuracy  in 
the  use  of  its  signs ;  for  intonations,  like  words,  will  have  more 
precision  and  force,  when  not  varied  from  their  fixed  and  appro- 
priate meaning. 

In  collecting  and  framing  the  precepts  of  Elocution,  I  have 
taken  into  view  both  the  strength  and  beauty  of  expression. 
The  system  represents  a  corrected  and  dignified  method  of  the 
voice,  under  that  form  of  severe  but  efficacious  simplicity,  which 
is  not  at  first  alluring  to  him  who  is  unaccustomed  to  regard  the 
exalted  purpose,  and  the  enduring  effect  of  the  arts.  The  art 
of  reading,  thus  established,  will  be  found  to  possess  an  excel- 
lence, which  must  grow  into  sure  and  irreversible  favor,  when- 
ever it  receives  the  studious  attention,  that  raises  the  pursuits  of 
the  wise  above  those  of  the  vulgar.  I  might,  from  another  art, 
relate  the  story  of  the  great  painter,  who  with  his  mind  filled 
with  anticipative  reflections  on  the  merits  of  Raffaelle,  was  dis- 
appointed at  his  first  sight  of  the  walls  of  the  Vatican,  and  dis- 
consolate after  his  last. 

The  florid  style  of  elocution,  consisting  of  a  melody  formed 
upon  other  and  more  expressive  intervals  than  those  of  the  dia- 
tonic, is  a  natural  result  of  the  sway  of  imagination  and  passion 
that  prevails  with  the  child  and  the  savage.  The  senseless  excita- 
bility of  ignorance  which  delights  in  the  florid  manner  of  speech, 
demands  a  perpetual  change  in  it ;  and  capricious  alteration 
takes  the  place  of  enduring  improvement.  The  system  of  plain 
diatonic  melody,  with  the  occasional  contrast  of  expressive  inter- 
vals, for  which,  as  the  Advocate  of  Nature,  I  Avould  plead,  has 
in  the  charm  of  its  simplicity,  an  impressive  influence  on  the 
educated  mind,  which  the  studious  use  of  observation  and  reflec- 
tion in  an  art,  always  produces. 

If  this  scheme  of  Elocution  should,  on  the  grounds  of  pro- 
priety or  taste,  be  objectionable,  let  another  be  formed  by  him 
who  is  better  qualified  for  the  task.  Only,  let  a  system  be 
formed.  And  while  in  other  arts,  we  can  turn  to  an  '  Apollo,' 
a  'Parthenon,'  and  a  'Transfiguration';  to  the  Rules  of  the 
Oratorio,  the  Landscape  of  Whatcly,  and  of  Price,  the  'Institutes' 
of  Quinctilian,  and  the  Precepts  of  Horace  and  of  Pope, —  lot 


CONCLUSION.  513 

Elocution  be  able  hereafter,  not  only  to  bring  forward  the  name 
of  a  Roscius,  a  Garrick,  a  Siddons,  and  a  Booth,  but  let  it  at 
the  same  time,  lay-up  in  the  Cabinet  of  the  arts,  a  history  of  the 
available  ways  and  means  of  their  vocal  superiority.  In  short, 
let  the  art  of  speaking-well  be  invested,  through  its  descriptive 
method,  with  that  corporate  capacity,  by  the  preservative  suc- 
cession of  which,  the  influence  of  its  highest  masters  shall  never 
die. 

The  true  spirit  of  fellowship  among  the  votaries  of  the  arts, 
and  the  bad  temper  of  disagreement,  turns  so  entirely  on  their 
harmony  in  opinion,  that  whoever  has  examined  this  subject 
would,  for  social  sympathy  if  not  for  taste,  prefer  a  system 
Avhich  even  deviates  from  the  line  of  nature, —  but  is  still  a  well- 
ordered  and  consistent  system, —  as  a  substitute  for  the  varying 
and  contradictory  rules,  constantly  suggested  by  the  ever-chang- 
ing authority,  in  individual  cases,  of  what  may  be  called 
untaught  or  natural  speech. 

The  philologist,  in  the  study  and  collation  of  languages,  esti- 
mates those  which  have  received  their  systematic  form  from  the 
arbitrary  institutions  of  grammar  and  prosody,  above  those 
which  spring  naturally  from  the  wants  and  passions  of  an  uncul- 
tivated people. 

Where  shall  we  find  the  natural  prototype  of  that  elegant  and 
precise  science  of  Heraldry,  which  makes  the  enthusiast,  over 
his  armorial  ensigns,  delight  in  the  purely  invented  system  of 
the  Escutcheon  and  its  Charges,  and  read  their  artificial  but 
methodic  disposition,  by  the  brief  and  luminous  rules  of  Bla- 
zonry ? 

What  book  of  Botany  can  designate  that  leaf  and  stem, 
which  form  the  floral  volute,  the  symmetric  lotus,  the  acanthus 
scroll,  the  varied  cup,  the  indented  leafing,  and  the  delicate 
tracery,  that  constitute  the  beautiful  and  endless  combination 
of  ornament,  in  Greek  and  Roman  Ideal  Foliage. 

These  three  subjects  are  all  the  conventional,  but  systematic 
creations  of  art ;  and  it  would  seem  that  objects  of  intellectual 
as  well  as  of  physical  taste  are  often  more  satisfactory,  when 
enjoyed  through  acquired  appetite  and  approbation :  and  we 


514  CONCLUSION. 

know  that  what  is  called  acquired  appetite,  is  always  governed 
by  the  influence  of  some  habitual  principles,  however  arbitrary 
these  principles  may  be. 

Without  a  system  of  rules,  either  natural  or  conventional,  I 
am  at  a  loss  to  know  on  wliat  criticism  in  Elocution  is  to  be 
founded.  Its  rules  have  too  frequently  been  drawn  from  the 
very  instances  which  are  the  subject  of  investigation.  Garrick 
is  to  be  tried ;  and  by  the  Common  Law,  for  tJiere  is  no  Statute 
here,  the  former  case  of  Garrick  is  the  rule  of  judgment.  Happy 
for  an  art,  when  such  authority  can  be  cited  !  But  what  is  to 
be  said  when  presumption  pushes  itself  into  the  front  ranks  of 
elocution,  and  thoughtless  friends  undertake  to  support  it?  The 
fraud  must  go  on,  till  presumption  quarrels,  as  often  happens, 
with  its  own  friends  or  Avitli  itself,  and  thus  dissolves  the  spell  of 
its  fictitious  character  and  merits. 

The  preceding  history  developes  many  principles  of  instruction 
and  criticism,  and  makes  some  effort  towards  their  application. 
Pronunciation,  pause,  and  emphasis  are  the  only  points  of  elo- 
cution which  have  been  reduced  to  the  precision  of  particulars : 
and  on  these  only  have  critics  been  able  to  show  anything  like 
definite  censure  or  applause.  By  directing  their  inquiry  to  the 
details  of  Intonation,  they  will  learn  how  far  emphasis  depends 
upon  it :  and  when  a  perception  of  its  universal  influence  in 
speech  is  awakened  by  definite  explanation,  and  nomenclature, 
they  will  then  first  perceive  how  the  comprehensive  designs  of 
emphasis,  in  its  fullest  purpose  of  thought  and  sentiment,  may 
be  marred  by  defects  in  the  delicate  schemes  of  melody,  and 
intonated  expression. 

Look  at  a  formal  review  of  dramatic  performance ;  you  will 
find  in  it,  words  enough,  and  very  good  grammar.  You  cannot 
however,  avoid  observing  a  strong  disposition  on  the  part  of  the 
writer,  to  say  something,  when  he  has  nothing  to  say :  hence 
after  exhausting  a  parrot-vocabulary  of  unmeaning  terms,  gene- 
rally misapplied,  and  always  mawkish  to  a  delicate  taste,  such 
as  '  chasteness,'  'by-play,'  'undertone,'  'freshness,'  'harmony,' 
'efl'cct,'  and  ^keeping.'  I  say,  after  hurrying  over  these  indefi- 
nites, the  writer  soon  makes  his  way  to  surer  ground,  in  noting 


CONCLUSION.  515 

the  number  and  dress  of  the  audience,  the  comfort  of  the  seats 
in  the  orchestra,  with  thanks  to  the  manager,  for  recent  altera- 
tions in  the  rules  of  the  house,  the  habit  of  slamminor  doors, 
and  the  noise  of  iron-shod  boots :  the  whole  accompanied  Avith 
copious  extracts  from  some  of  Shakspeare's  best-known  scenes, 
and  perhaps  a  reprint  of  one  of  Cumberland's  criticisms. 

The  preceding  essay  furnishes  principles  and  definite  terms, 
by  which  the  specific  merits  and  defects  of  an  actor  or  a  speaker 
may  be  distinctly  represented ;  by  which  the  indescribable 
mysteries  of  speech,  as  they  are  called,  may  be  intelligibly  told 
to  other  ages  than  those  that  hear  them ;  by  which  arrogance 
and  imposture  in  this  art,  may  be  wrested  from  their  hold  on  the 
better  part  of  mankind,  and  their  corrupting  influence  left 
undisturbed  over  that  great  majority,  that  is  always  ready  to 
support  the  small,  and  too  often  the  greater  frauds  of  life,  and 
that,  in  its  way,  does  receive  a  sort  of  pleasure  from  the  chang- 
ing pictures  of  its  credulity. 

The  same  acute  and  comprehensive  observation  which  makes 
an  interpreter  of  nature,  makes  a  prophet  in  the  arts.  He  can 
tell  us,  that  in  the  future  history  of  elocution,  as  it  now  is  Avith 
song,  the  masters  of  its  Practice  must  always  be  masters  of  the 
Science :  that  they  will,  with  the  confident  aim  of  principles, 
address  themselves  to  the  elect  of  intelligence  and  taste,  by  whom 
their  merits  will  be  rated  and  their  authority  fixed.  And  if  in 
acquiring  fame  or  fortune  by  their  voice,  they  should  receive 
assistance  from  this  essay,  I  shall  be  contented  to  think  it  may 
be  even  a  humble  contribution  to  the  means,  by  which  the  works 
of  iEsthetic  Art  have  in  all  ages,  delighted  the  intelligent  and 
educated  portion  of  mankind. 

Finally,  I  would  recommend  this  analysis,  and  the  practical 
inference  which  may  be  drawn  from  it,  to  those  who  declare 
with  contradistinguishing  ascription,  that  elocution  cannot  be 
taught,  but  must  be  the  work  of  genius  alone.  Such  persons 
look  upon  the  powers  of  the  mind,  as  a  kind  of  sleight :  the 
ways  and  means  of  which  are  unknown  and  immeasurable.  But 
genius  as  it  appears  from  its  productions,  is  only  an  aptitude  for 
that  intelligent,   and  exclusive  attention  which  perceives  and 


516  CONCLUSION. 

accomplishes  more  than  is  done  without  it ;  and  therefore  in  its 
purpose  and  uses  is  not  altogether  removed  beyond  the  reach  of 
rules :  though  in  its  course  of  instruction,  genius  is  oftenest  the 
pupil  of  itself. 

Let  those  who  are  deluded  by  this  vulgar  notion  of  genius, 
turn  themselves  from  mystics,  who  wrap  up  only  to  misrepresent 
the  simple  agency  of  the  mind,  and  who  cannot  define  an 
attribute  which  through  their  own  veil  they  do  not  comprehend ; 
let  them  look  to  the  great  Sachems  of  mankind,  the  far-seeing 
Chiefs  of  Thought,  and  learn  from  the  real  possessors  of  it,  how 
much  of  its  manner  may  be  described.  They  will  tell  us  that  genius, 
in  its  high  meaning  is  always  enthusiastic :  always  characterized 
by  passionate  but  steady  perseverance  ;  by  the  love  of  an  object 
in  its  means  as  well  as  its  end ;  by  that  unshaken  confidence  in  its 
own  powers,  which  converts  the  evils  of  discouragement  into  the 
benefits  of  success  ;  which  cares  not  to  be  alone,  and  is  too  much 
engrossed  with  its  own  truths,  to  be  disturbed  by  the  opinions  of 
others :  with  a  disentangling  spirit,  to  see  things  as  they  might 
be  ;  and  an  economy  of  purpose  to  execute  them  as  they  ought 
to  be ;  soaring  above  that  musty  policy  which,  in  its  wary  tact 
of  the  expedient,  would  with  a  world-serving  quietude  preserve 
them  always  as  they  are :  having  the  power  to  accomplish  great 
and  useful  works,  only  because  it  wastes  no  time  on  small  and 
selfish  ones ;  and  passing  a  life  of  warfare  in  detecting  the  im- 
postures and  follies  of  its  own  age,  that  the  next,  like  the 
celebrated  response  by  the  Oracle  of  Delphi,  may  pronounce  it 
the  chief  in  wisdom  and  in  virtue. 


BRIEF    ANALYSIS 


OF 


SONG      AND      RECITATIVE 


When  the  phenomena  of  Speech,  Song  and  Recitative,  are 
regarded  independently  of  verbal  distinctions,  they  display  a 
nearer  resemblance  than  is  discoverable  by  a  general  view  of 
their  effects  and  names.  It  is  the  duty  of  philosophy  to  look 
into  the  real  existences  of  things;  to  break  down  many  of  those 
lines  of  separation  which  the  poor  conveniences  of  classification 
have  established  ;  and  to  exhibit,  as  far  as  available  with  finite 
resources,  that  clear  and  comprehensive  picture  of  nature,  sur- 
veyed at  once  and  always,  by  the  infinite  discernment  of  her 
own  self-present,  and  self-percipient  eye. 

To  the  common  ear,  speech  and  song  are  totally  different. 
Let  us  examine  their  relationships  by  a  comparison  of  their  seve- 
ral constituents. 

In  taking  up  this  subject,  I  have  no  now  vocal  function  to 
describe.  Song  and  Recitative  arc  only  certain  combinations  of 
the  five  modes  of  sound  and  their  forms,  enumerated  in  the  pre- 
ceding history  of  speech.     It  is  my  design  to  point  out  the  man- 


518  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.    . 

ner  of  these  combinations ;  in  order  to  complete  the  surA'ey  of 
vocal  science;  and  —  if  the  natural  and  expressive  use  of  the 
voice  does  at  all  admit  the  Pretensions  of  Recitative, —  to  show 
the  relationship  between  its  three  leading  divisions. 

OF  SONG. 

The  art  of  Vocal  Music  has  long  been  studiously  cultivated ; 
and  although  it  has  never  yet  received  a  full  elementary  analysis, 
either  of  its  structure  or  its  effects,  its  investigations  haVe  accu- 
mulated a  mass  of  observation,  and  framed  a  body  of  rules  for 
governing  the  great  and  brilliant  results  of  its  practical  exe- 
cution. 

It  is,  at  this  time,  beyond  both  my  design  and  ability  to  offer 
anything  like  a  detailed  consideration  of  the  topic  before  us. 
The  opportunities  for  inquiry  on  the  subject  of  Song,  as  well  as 
on  that  of  all  the  Fine  Arts,  are  too  limited  in  this  country,  as 
regards  companionship  in  knowledge,  the  higher  discussions  of 
taste,  and  eminent  examples  of  executive  skill,  to  furnish  a 
proposed  record,  in  that  order  and  with  that  clearness  which 
always  characterize  a  direct  transcript  from  nature.  It  becomes 
the  American,  in  knowing  himself  on  these  matters,  to  touch 
those  points  only,  which  the  physiology  of  his  own  organs  may 
furnish,  and,  in  this  day  at  least,  to  leave  the  full  description  of 
the  singing-voice,  to  the  ample  means  of  European  experience 
and  education.  I  propose  to  give  onl}'^  a  general  account  of  the 
functions  of  song;  leaving  it  to  those  whom  it  may  profession- 
ally concern,  to  make  a  practical  application  of  the  principles 
here  developed,  or  to  regard  them  only  as  a  pastime  of  know- 
ledge, in  natural  history. 

As  song  consists  in  certain  combinations  of  the  five  modes  of 
the  voice,  employed  as  the  ground  of  arrangement  in  speech, 
the  proposed  analysis  will  be  given  under  the  same  general 
heads:  and  first, 

Of  the  Fitch  of  Song.  The  movement  of  song  has  every 
direction  and  extent,  ascribed  to  speech;  together  with  two 
forms  of  intonation,  which  do  not  belong  to  the  latter. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  519 

In  illustrating  the  nature  of  tlie  equable  concrete  I  described 
the  Protracted  Vanish.  As  a  single  unimpassioned  eftbrt,  it 
consists  of  a  rapid  concrete-rise  through  the  interval  of  a  tone, 
and  of  a  prolongation  on  one  line  of  pitch  at  the  summit  of  that 
tone.  Let  us  call  the  former  of  these  constituent  movements, 
the  Concrete,  and  the  latter,  the  Note.  Of  this  ascending 
concrete  with  its  conjoined  note,  there  are  two  conditions. 
First:  when  the  Concrete  ascends  and  terminates  in  the  note, 
at  the  summit  of  the  interval;  thus  constituting  the  Protracted 
Vanish. 

In  ascending  by  this  combination  of  the  concrete  and  note, 
through  the  seven  places  of  the  musical  scale,  the  movement  is 
made  according  to  the  following  notation  of  time  and  pitch : 
where  I  suppose  the  succession  to  be  on  the  staff  of  the  bass-cliff. 


W^^ 


Tz^- 


w^~^ 


^^ 


The  Second  condition  is,  when  the  Note  begins  the  interval 
with  its  prolongation,  and  the  concrete  then  rises  to  the  summit 
of  the  interval ;  thus  constituting  the  Protracted  Radical.  In 
ascending  the  scale,  by  this  combination  of  note  and  concrete, 
the  progression  is  made  according  to  the  following  notation. 


Song  variously  employs  both  these  movements:  the  protracted 
radical  less  frequently  perhaps  tlian  the  protracted  vani.sh :  for 
the  voice  in  its  instinctive  intonation,  appears  to  fall  more  readily 
into  the  latter.  Not  having  however  sufficiently  cxan.ined  this 
case,   I  leave    it    for    future    inquirers.      Regarding    the  vocal 


620  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

effect  or  expression  in  these  two  forms  of  the  protracted  note, 
there  seems  to  be  no  difference  between  them :  and  should  no 
better  reason  be  found  for  a  singer's  choice  in  taking  one  or  the 
other,  it  might  perhaps,  in  some  cases,  be  decided  by  the  nature 
of  the  elements  on  •which  it  is  executed.  Thus  the  radicals  of 
the  dipthongs,  a-we,  a-h,  and  ou-t,  have  more  volume  and  audible 
character,  than  their  respective  vanishes  e-rr  and  oo-ze.  Thus 
too,  when  a  subtonic  begins  and  ends  a  syllable,  or  when  a  sub- 
tonic  begins,  and  a  tonic  ends  it,  there  may  be  reason  for  a 
choice.  Hence  we  may  understand  why  a  singer,  having  refer- 
ence to  the  more  agreeable  sound,  and  more  impressive  effect  of 
a  long-drawn  note,  would  prefer  using  the  protracted  radical, 
or  protracted  vanish,  as  the  nature  of  the  syllable  might  allow. 
The  time  of  the  concrete  rise  in  the  foregoing  scales,  is  here 
represented  by  a  semiquaver,  and  that  of  the  note  by  a  semi- 
breve,  two  comparative  terms  in  music,  expressing  the  proportion 
of  one  to  sixteen. 

There  may  be  a  Simple,  and  a  more  Complex  structure  of 
song :  formed  respectively,  by  the  discrete,  and  the  concrete 
movements  of  the  voice. 

As  the  successions  of  pitch  in  song,  when  formed  according 
to  the  preceding  scales,  are  made  by  a  transition  either  to  proxi- 
mate or  remote  degrees,  without  the  continuous  slide  from  one 
degree  into  another,  a  vocal  melody  founded  on  these  scales, 
forms  the  plainest  kind  of  song,  resembling  the  discrete  music 
of  a  flute. 

In  this  kind  of  melody,  the  length  of  the  note,  when  com- 
pared with  the  concrete,  is  different  according  to  the  time  of 
the  musical  composition.  Its  longest  quantity  may  exceed  the 
proportion  represented  in  the  above  scales.  Its  shortest,  as  in 
quick-timed  songs,  changes  the  syllabic  movement  to  an  equable 
concrete  ;  the  voice  becoming  altogether  concrete  by  the  oblitera- 
tion of  the  note  :  and  were  it  not  for  an  occasional  long  quantity 
on  the  note  of  song,  and  the  wide  transitions  of  radical  pitch,  it 
would  pass  for  speech ;  since  as  such  we  hear  it  in  the  rapid 
parts  of  comic  songs.  This  is  the  reason  why  it  does  not  re- 
quire much  musical  skill  to  sing  them ;  the  greater  part  of  their 
intonation  being  in  the  equable  concrete. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 


521 


The  foregoing  diagrams  of  the  tone  represent, — with  the 
exception  of  the  semitone,  not  here  noted, —  the  most  simple 
form  of  the  concrete  of  song.  But  other  scales  of  -vvidcr  con- 
cretes may  be  constructed. 

The  following  diagram,  represents  the  protracted  vanish ;  with 
a  concrete,  varying  from  a  second  to  an  eighth :  and  a  wider 
range  of  the  concrete  might  be  exhibited,  for  song  occasionally 
uses  it.  Having  given  above,  a  full  scale  of  the  concrete  of  a 
second,  with  its  protracted  vanish,  it  is  unnecessary  to  form  a 
full  scale  for  each  of  the  other  intervals.  The  reader  can  in  his 
mind  or  on  paper,  do  this  for  himself. 


Now,  taking  this  diagram,  with  the  page  inverted,  it  will 
exhibit  the  notation  of  a  Protracted  Radical  with  an  issuing 
concrete  of  the  several  intervals  of  the  scale :  observing,  that 
here  we  begin  with  the  octave;  a  difference  of  no  account  in  the 
explanation.  Thus,  we  have  a  representation  of  all  the  forms 
of  the  protracted  radical  and  protracted  vanish,  with  their  rising 
concretes  of  every  extent,  used  in  song.  But  song  likewise 
employs  the  downward  concrete  in  connection  with  the  protracted 
notes ;  and  of  these  movements  there  are  two  conditions.  The 
First  descends  by  the  concrete,  and  terminates  in  the  protracted 
note.  The  Second,  on  the  contrary,  begins  with  the  protracted 
note,  and  then  descends  by  the  concrete,  as  in  the  following 
illustration : 


First  Condition. 


Second  Condition. 


34 


522  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

There  is  another  form  of  the  junction  of  note  and  concrete 
used  in  song,  consisting  of  the  above  two  conditions  united : 
that  is,  the  first  may  have  a  note  at  the  beginning  of  its  con- 
crete, and  the  second  a  note  at  its  end ;  the  concrete  in  each 
case  being  between  two  notes. 

There  are  then  in  song,  two  conditions  of  the  rising  and  two 
of  the  falling  movement :  severally  formed  by  a  union  of  the 
concrete  of  every  interval  respectively  with  its  protracted  note : 
and  what  was  remarked  concerning  the  length  of  the  note,  in 
the  scale  of  the  concrete  second,  may  be  said  of  the  other  scales, 
with  their  diflferent  intervals, —  that  the  proportion  between  the 
note  and  the  concrete  may  vary  till  the  former  disappears  alto- 
gether, and  the  movement  becomes  like  the  equable  concrete  of 
the  rising  and  falling  intervals  of  speech. 

Let  us  suppose  these  last  forms  of  the  concrete,  without  the 
appendage  of  the  note,  to  be  united  into  one  continuous  line  of 
contrary  flexure.  This  produces,  with  or  without  an  abrupt  radi- 
cal, the  wave  of  song :  and  inasmuch  as  we  have  concretes  of  every 
interval  and  of  every  direction,  so  they  may  be  combined  into 
every  form  of  the  wave.  But  besides  this  simple  form,  like  that 
of  speech,  the  wave  may  either  begin  with  a  protracted  note,  or 
end  with  one ;  or  begin  and  end  with  one. 

Song  likewise  employs  the  Tremulous  scale,  on  the  protracted 
note,  the  concrete,  and  the  wave. 

As  regards  its  pitch,  song  may  be  classed  under  two  divisions, 

Discrete-Song  ;  or  the  progression  of  a  melody,  formed  of  the 
protracted  radical,  or  of  the  protracted  vanish,  with  a  radical 
pitch  of  any  interval,  and  the  concrete  of  a  second  or  tone.    And, 

Concrete-Song;  consisting  of  a  continuous  movement  through 
the  wider  intervals,  both  in  an  upward  and  downward  direction  ; 
mingled  with  protracted  notes ;  with  a  wider  radical  pitch ; 
with  the  various  forms  of  the  wave ;  and  with  every  variety  and 
degree  of  stress. 

This  is  the  proper  place  to  consider  the  subject  of  articulation 
in  song,  since  it  is  the  management  of  pitch  which  secures  the 
distinctness  of  this  function. 

It  was  shown,  that  one  of  the  requisites  for  distinct  pronun- 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  523 

ciation  in  speech,  is  a  just  apportionment  of  the  concrete,  to  the 
the  literal  elements.  The  audibility  of  the  words  in  song  depends 
in  part  upon  the  same  principle ;  for  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
protracted  note  of  pitch  does  not  alter  the  rule  of  syllabication. 
The  correct  articulation  of  song,  however,  requires  a  further 
attention  to  the  accentuation  of  words,  and  to  their  sj^llabic 
quantity.  But  the  management  of  these  matters  lies  with  the 
composer  and  the  poet.  I  have  only  to  remark,  that  where  the 
accent  and  quantity  of  syllables  are  adjusted  to  the  accent  and 
time  of  musical  composition,  song  may  be  made  as  articulate  as 
speech :  and  that  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  voice,  together 
with  the  required  diligence,  a  qualified  person  may  learn  to  sing, 
in  plain  melody,  or  discrete  song,  with  as  distinct  an  articula- 
tion as  he  speaks.  I  say  in  plain  melody ;  for  the  wonderful 
Lofty  vocal  Tumbling  of  the  florid  and  ambitious  song,  has  often 
as  little  to  do  with  words,  as  it  has  with  Expression :  or  with 
anything  else  than  Difl5culty  and  Applause.  Writers  on  vocal 
science  have  extensively  treated  this  subject ;  yet  the  same  pre- 
ceptive page  which  enjoins  its  importance,  directs  that  the  vowels 
should  principally  compose  the  strain  of  utterance.  The  vowel 
or  tonic  sounds  have  indeed,  the  purest  and  most  agreeable 
quality  for  song :  but  it  is  also  certain,  that  a  syllable  in  song 
is  distinctly  recognized,  by  its  proper  accent,  and  by  the  proper 
apportionment  of  quantity  among  its  elements.  Thus  the  pur- 
poses in  these  writers  seem  to  be  at  variance.  It  is  the  vocalist's 
duty  to  reconcile  them,  by  making  distinct  articulation  agreeable. 
The  preceding,  is  a  general  account  of  the  structure  of  pitch 
in  song.  The  manner  of  using  it,  in  combination  with  other 
constituents  will  be  described  hereafter.* 

*  Upon  a  review  of  our  history  of  the  intonation  of  speech  and  song,  it  seemed 
to  me, —  the  effect  of  the  discrete  scale  of  the  latter  with  its  issuing  vanish, 
might  be  produced  on  some  musical  instruments. 

I  had  designed  to  connect  a  square  organ-pipe  with  its  finger-key,  by  means 
of  compound  levers,  so  that  the  same  touch  whicli  raises  the  wind-valve  sliould, 
at  a  succeeding  moment,  raise  a  hinged  shutter  on  one  side  of  the  pipe  at  its 
open  end ;  the  object  of  this  shutter  being  to  cover  an  oblong  aperture,  or 
ventage,  reaching  from  the  very  end  of  the  pipe,  so  far  towards  its  sounding- 
lip,  as  to  raise  the  pitch  a  tone  or  second  when  the  shutter  should  be  opened. 


524  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

Of  the  Time  of  Song.  ^Time  is  here  considered,  only  in 
relation  to  the  individual  functions,  and  not  to  the  general  con- 
struction of  melody  and  its  rythmus. 

Time  is  used  with  every  degree  of  duration,  on  the  note,  on 
the  upward  and  downward  concrete,  and  on  the  wave.     When  it 

Now  this  shutter  having  its  centre  of  motion  towards  the  sounding-lip,  was 
to  overlap  the  edges  of  the  oblong  ventage :  but  the  under  surface  of  this 
shutter,  was  to  have  a  block  attached  to  it,  for  entering  and  closing  the  ventage, 
the  overlap  of  the  shutter  forming  a  rebate  to  the  sides  of  the  closing  block. 
This  block  to  be  of  some  thickness,  and  beveled  with  its  sharp  angle  towards 
the  end  of  the  pipe ;  that  when  the  shutter,  together  with  the  beveled  block 
in  the  ventage,  as  the  under  part  of  it,  should  be  raised,  th«  ventage  would 
be  gradually  opened,  and  the  intonation  be  thus  made  to  ascend  with  a  /con- 
crete movement.  When  the  shutter  should  be  entirely  opened,  the  long  note 
then  produced,  immediately  following  the  concrete,  might  give  the  instrumental 
execution  of  the  protracted  vanish. 

In  the  transitions  of  melody  with  such  a  contrivance,  it  would  be  necessary 
that  the  valve  in  the  wind-chest  should  be  made  to  close  before  the  shutter, 
otherVfise  the  gradual  descent  of  the  shutter,  would  make  a  falling  concrete, 
on  every  note. 

I  have  thus  suggested  the  principle  on  which  an  experiment  may  be  tried 
by  those  who  have  ability,  time,  and  convenience  for  such  works :  and  there 
are  other  ways  which  persons  of  mechanical  cleverness  may  contrive,  for 
producing  the  concrete  movement  on  a  sounding-pipe  either  of  metal  or  wood. 

Perhaps  this  mechanism  might  be  connected  with  the  vox-humana  stop  of  an 
organ,  or  even  the  ventages  of  a  bassoon.  If  this  is  practicable,  it  may  give 
to  instruments  a  little  more  of  the  character  of  the  singing  voice  than  they 
at  present  possess. 

I  cannot  say  how  much  further  the  principle  might  be  applied,  for  adding 
the  wider  ranges  of  the  concrete,  by  a  ventage  of  greater  dimensions  in  the 
pipe.  The  mechanism  even  for  the  Second  would  not  be  simple,  and  the 
management  of  more  than  one  concrete-key,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  might  be 
beyond  the  dexterity  of  the  player.  'What  could  be  done  on  barrel-organs 
machinists  can  best  tell. 

Automaton  Figures  have  been  made  to  speak,  as  it  is  called ;  but  it  is  in 
a  protracted  note  which  produces  song.  Would  not  the  imitation  of  speech  be 
nearer,  if  the  sound  were  by  its  instrumental  cause,  formed  into  the  equable 
concrete  ? 

On  the  whole,  I  shall  be  sorry  if  any  one  should  lose  his  labor  by  a  vain 
working  at  this  problem.  It  is  not  the  odd  ends  of  time  that  ever  did  any 
thing  well:  and  if  the  schemer  should  be  disposed  to  devote  one  useful  day, 
to  the  wasteful  hazards  of  mechanical  ingenuity,  in  such  matters  as  here  pro- 
posed, let  him  take,  at  the  same  time,  the  hint  of  caution. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  525 

is  SO  short  as  to  exclude  the  note,  as  in  quick-timed  song,  the 
effect  of  the  mere  individual  act  of  intonation,  does  not  differ 
from  that  of  the  equable  concrete  of  speech. 

Of  Quality  of  Voice  in  Song.  Quality  of  voice  is  the  same, 
in  character  and  effect,  in  song  and  in  speech.  But  since  the 
long  quantities  of  the  former  consist  of  the  protracted  tonics, 
it  renders  the  quality  more  conspicuous,  and  subjects  it  to  more 
rigorous  scrutiny.  There  are  harsh,  full,  slender,  and  nasal 
voices,  and  what  is  called  in  the  language  of  the  schools,  Pure 
Tone.  This  subject  is  however  so  well  known  to  singers,  as  to 
need  no  further  consideration  here. 

A  subject  of  physiological  inquiry,  connected  equally  with 
song  Tand  speech,  here  deserves  our  notice.  It  is  known  that 
with  a  few  trials,  all  the  tonic  and  most  of  the  other  elements 
may  be  made  individually  by  the  act  of  Inspiration.  The 
quality  is  indeed  strangely  altered,  but  the  characteristic  sound 
is  complete.  It  would  seem  then,  the  vocal  functions  are  practi- 
cable both  in  the  ebb  and  the  flow  of  respiration  :  but  the  former 
has  been  universally  appointed  to  carry  out  the  continued  current 
of  speech.  Now  as  the  act  of  insjnration  permits  the  utterance 
of  but  a  single  word,  or  at  most  three  or  four,  the  effect  of 
inward  speech  resembles  that  of  infants,  upon  their  first  attempts 
in  expired  speech.  We  have  not  for  the  purpose  of  inward 
speech,  the  Holding-breath,  as  we  formerly  called  it,  and  there- 
fore the  act  of  inspiration  immediately  fills  the  lungs,  reversely, 
as  the  Exhausting  breath  with  the  infant,  drains  them,  and  thus 
cuts  off  the  course  of  utterance. 

It  may  then  be  made  a  question,  whether  by  a  practice  as 
long  and  assiduous  as  that  which  gives  command  over  the  time 
of  expiration,  the  same  holding-breath  might  not  be  attained  in 
inspiration  ;  and,  should  the  quality  of  this  inward  voice,  be 
improvable,  whether  it  might  not  be  employed  in  the  purposes 
of  singing,  to  aid  in  sustaining  the  voice  indefinitely,  and  for 
insuring  a  continuous  intonation  in  the  higher  intricacies  of 
execution.  It  is  certain,  this  power  has  been  attained  in 
whistling,  both  as  regards  shrillness,  and  the  accuracy  of  pitch : 
and  though  in  this  case,  the  command  over  the  holding-breath 


526  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

of  expiration,  far  surpasses  the  command  over  that  of  inspiration, 
still,  the  turning  point  for  inhaling  may  be  rendered  almost 
impferceptible,  through  the  controlling  power  that  does  exist.* 

Of  Force  of  Voice  in  Song.  Force  has  reference  either  to 
the  general  drift  of  the  voice,  or  to  its  individual  movements. 
We  shall  consider  it  only  in  the  latter  relation. 

All  the  forms  of  stress  we  have  ascribed  to  speech  are  found 
in  song.  This  is  true  not  only  as  regards  the  equable  concrete, 
sometimes  used  in  the  short  impulses  of  the  singing  voice ;  but 
the  radical,  the  median,  and  the  vanishing  stress,  are  also  sev- 
erally applied  to  the  protracted  note ;  and  to  every  course  and 
extent  of  the  wave. 

The  full  and  abrupt  radical  being  always  preceded  by  an 
occlusion,  it  may  have  a  place  at  the  outset  of  all  the  forms  of 
the  concrete,  and  of  the  protracted  radical,  or  at  the  opening  of 
the  note,  represented  in  the  second  condition  of  the  preceding 
diagram.  A  note  at  the  termination  of  a  rising  or  of  a  falling 
concrete  cannot  receive  the  radical  stress. 

The  greater  duration  of  time,  allotted  to  the  different  forms 
of  the  concrete  and  to  the  protracted  notes,  beyond  what  is 
allowable  in  speech,  gives  rise  to  a  modification  of  the  median 
stress  or  swell,  not  practicable  on  the  syllabic  concrete  of  dis- 
course :  for  more  than  one  of  these  swells  may  be  set  on  the 
same  note ;  that  is,  the  force  may  diminish  and  increase  alter- 
nately. The  median  stress  may  also  on  a  protracted  quantity, 
slightly  resemble  the  radical  and  the  vanish,  by  suddenly  en- 
larging in  the  course  of  the  prolongation  and  gradually 
diminishing ;  and  by  the  reverse.  But  this  is  a  physiological 
refinement ;  and  we  are  not  yet  ready  for  its  practical  use. 

The  vanishing  stress  is  principally  set  on  the  equable  con- 
crete, when  it  makes  the  short  syllabic  intonation  of  comic  song. 

But  the  most  remarkable  use  of  force  is  made  by  the  coni- 
pound  stress,  in  that  vocal  ornament  called  the  Trill  or  Shake. 

*  The  Opera,  and  the  Concert  Hall,  in  their  Auctions  of  Fame,  bid  high  for 
the  execution  of  vocal  difficulties.  Here  then  is  the  chance  of  an  enormous 
price,  for  success,  in  what  has  never  been  done  before ;  and  what  at  first 
thought,  may  seem  to  be  impossible. 


i 

I 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  527 

The  shake  is  described  to  be,  a  rapid  alternation  of  a  lower 
with  an  upper  *note,  on  proximate  degrees  of  the  diatonic  scale. 
In  other  words,  it  is  a  rapid  alternation  of  two  vocal  or  instru- 
mental sounds,  on  the  extremes  of  a  tone  or  a  semitone.  Let  us 
call  these  two  constituents  of  the  shake  its  co-sounds. 

We  learned  that  every  concrete  impulse  necessarily  consists  of  a 
radical  and  vanish.  Consequently,  when  we  make  two  succes- 
sive impulses  on  different  degrees  of  pitch,  each  must  exhibit 
these  two  essential  portions  of  the  concrete.  But  as  the  radical 
with  its  vanish  consumes  more  time  than  the  radical  alone ;  and 
as  the  radical  is  an  abrupt  opening,  after  an  occlusion,  there 
would  be,  in  this  manner  of  making  the  shake,  a  delay  in  the 
whole  time  of  each  concrete,  as  Avell  as  a  momentary  pause, 
between  the  close  of  the  vanish  on  the  first,  and  the  opening  of 
the  radical,  on  the  second.  Now  the  shake  being  a  rapid  iteration 
of  two  co-sounds,  without  apparent  interruption,  it  cannot  be 
made  by  a  series  of  concrete  impulses  each  having  its  radical 
and  vanish.  For  should  a  singer  try  to  execute  a  shake  on  the 
dipthong  a-le,  he  cannot  give  its  characteristic  rapidity,  when 
the  first  sound  of  a-le  is  the  beginning  of  each  of  its  successive 
co-sounds.  By  assigning  the  co-sounds  respectively  to  the  radi- 
cal and  the  vanish  of  this  dipthong,  or  of  any  of  the  other 
tonics,  there  will  be  no  difiiculty  in  its  execution. 

The  rapid  execution  of  the  shake,  and  the  momentary  nature 
of  its  co-sounds,  make  it  a  difficult  subject  of  investigation.  The 
resemblance  however,  of  the  intonation  of  a  vocal,  to  that  of  an 
instrumental  shake,  aifords  a  proof  that  the  former  like  the 
latter,  consists  of  two  sounds  on  diff'ercnt  degrees  of  pitch.  It 
also  appears,  from  the  like  illustration  by  an  instrument,  that 
the  co-sounds  though  of  different  degrees  of  pitch  are  of  equal 
time,  volume,  and  force.  Now  the  formation  of  the  shake,  thus 
constituted,  may  be  described  under  two  conditions;  In  both 
of  which,  the  delay,  arising  from  each  successive  concrete  having 
both  a  radical  and  a  vanish,— and  which,  as  we  have  shown, 
creates  the  whole  difficulty  of  the  case,— is  obviated  by  the  use 
of  the  Compound  stress. 

For  the  first  formative  condition  let  the  summit  of  the   im- 


528  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

pulse,  or  tlio  vanishing  portion,  be  enforced  to  an  equality  with 
the  radical.  "We  shall  then  have  tAvo  impressive 'sounds,  at  the 
extremes  of  the  impulse,  joined  by  a  smooth  transition  of  the 
fainter[concrete,  and  forming  the  first  two  co-sounds  of  the  shake  ;- 
which,  in  this  case,  are  both  made  in  the  time  required  for  one 
impulse,  when  that  impulse  contains  a  natural  radical  and  vanish. 
Now  as  the  vanishing  stress,  or  what,  in  this  instance,  is  improperly 
called  the  upper  note  of  the  shake,  is  terminated  by  an  occluded 
catch,  as  in  the  sob  and  hiccough,  the  voice  is  enabled  by  an 
immediate  opening  of  that  occlusion,  to  begin  a  new  radical 
stress,  improperly  called  the  lower  note.  Thus,  by  breaking 
from  the  occluded  vanish  of  one  impulse  into  the  radical  of  the 
next,  and  so,  saving  the  time  of  transition  through  one  whole 
concrete,  the  rapid  and  apparently  united  co-sounds  of  the  shake 
are  effected.     In  the  following  diagram, 


a  and  h  denote  two  proximate  degrees  of  the  scale.  The  figure 
1  the  radical  stress,  or  lower  sound  of  the  shake :  2  the 
vanishing  stress,  or  upper  sound,  on  Avhich  the  voice  is  occluded. 
In  an  imperceptible  instant,  this  occlusion  breaks  out  into  the 
next  radical  stress  3.  The  voice'  is  then  diminished  in  force ; 
and  again  increased  to  its  vanishing  stress,  and  occlusion  at  4. 

When  made  in  this  way,  the  shake  may  be  considered  as  a 
rapid  iteration  of  the  compound  stress,  between  the  extremes  of 
a  tone  or  a  semitone. 

For  the  second  condition,  let  us  take  the  first  two  of  the 
co-sounds, —  or  as  we  may  call  them,  co-stresses, —  described  and 
illustrated  above.  Deliberate  trial  will  prove  that  an  applica- 
tion of  stress  to  the  upper  extreme  of  the  rising  concrete  at  2, 
and  to  the  lower  at  3,  as  represented  in  the  last  diagram,  in  no 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 


529 


way,  prevents  the  voice,  from  making  a  downward  continuous 
turn,  from  2  to  3,  in  one  case,  and  an  upward  continuous  turn, 
from  3  to  4,  in  the  other,  into  the  form  of  a  continued  wave : 
and  thus  by  an  alternate  succession  of  these  radical  and  vanish- 
ing stresses,  joined  by  the  fainter  concrete,  we  are  able  to  effect 
the  rapid  iterations  of  the  shake :  as  represented  in  the  follow- 
ing diagram :  where  the  voice  opens  at  1,  with  the  radical 
stress;  then  diminishes  to  the  faint  concrete;  subsequently 
increases  to  the  vanishing  stress  at  2 ;  then  without  an  occlu- 
sion, turns  downward,  and  after  diminishing  to  the  faint  concrete, 
enlarges  to  the  stress  in  the  radical  place  at  3 ;  and  in  this 
way,  when  rapidly  executed,  forms  the  proper  vocal  shake. 


Under  this  view,  the  shake  is  a  rapid  alternation  of  the  com- 
pound stress,  on  the  rising  and  falling  constituents  of  a  continued 
wave  of  proximate  degrees.  And  thus  we  learn,  that  the  iterated 
co-sounds  are  not  notes,  but  emphatic  stresses,  of  no  assignable 
time,  on  the  points  of  contrary  flexure  in  the  wave.  But  as 
there  can  be  a  sudden  fulness  of  the  voice,  only  on  a  first  out- 
break of  the  radical,  an  engrafting  of  the  vanishing  stress  on 
the  concrete,  at  the  place  of  the  second  or  upper  sound,  must 
be  by  a  swell  into  the  fulness  of  that  stress.  From  2,  the  fulness 
is  diminished  in  order  to  swell  again  into  the  lower  sound  at  3  ; 
and  thus  the  shake  has  the  form  represented  in  the  dia- 
gram. From  this  junction  of  the  stresses  by  a  diminution  and 
swell  of  the  concrete  ;  and  from  the  gliding  of  one  into  the 
other,  we  may  perceive  the  cause  of  the  smoothness,  and  of  the 
'  liquidity,'  as  it  is  called,  of  a  skillful  and  finished  execution  of 
this  vocal  ornament.  The  peculiar  manner  of  combining  this 
double  stress  with    raind  intonation  in  the    shake,  not  being 


530  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

part  of  the  natural  uses  of  the  voice, —  for  the  compound  stress 
in  speech  consists  of  but  hvo  sloio  co-sounds  of  the  shake, — 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  power  of  executing  it,  is  unattainable 
by  some,  and  only  acquired,  in  any  case,  after  a  long  time,  by 
great  industry  and  perseverance.  As  the  compound  stress  is 
practicable  on  every  interval,  so  a  shake  might  be  composed  of 
an  iteration  of  that  stress  on  the  extremes  of  wider  intervals  : 
and  indeed,  a  slow  shake  of  this  kind  is  sometimes  heard  among 
the  tricks  of  the  Florid  song :  but  it  has  no  expression,  and  is 
not  technically  classed  with  that  ornament. 

Such  is  my  attempt  to  explain  the  manner  of  combining  stress 
and  intonation  in  the  shake.  But  after  all,  I  ^am  not  able  to 
give  an  unquestionable  description  of  it.  By  a  slow  and  mea- 
surable movement  of  my  own  voice,  I  perceive,  it  can  be  made 
under  each  of  the  conditions  above  described.  But  when  it  is 
quickened  to  its  characteristic  rapidity,  the  distinct  measurement 
of  its  structure  and  motion  is  lost,  and  I  find  it  impossible  to 
decide,  which  of  the  conditions  is  then  employed.  With  the 
assistance  of  this  work,  some  other  observer  may  describe  it 
more  definitely. 

There  is  another  occasion,  on  which  the  compound  stress  is 
used  in  song. 

When  an  extent  of  the  whole  compass  of  the  voice,  greater 
or  less  than  the  scale,  is  rapidly  traversed,  but  with  a  marked 
designation  of  each  degree  in  the  flight,  it  is  called  '  running  a 
Division.'  We  have  seen,  in  the  formation  of  the  shake,  that 
adjoining  points  of  the  scale  cannot  be  marked  in  rapid  succes- 
sion by  concretes,  where  each  contains  both  the  radical  and  vanish ; 
it  is  necessary  therefore  in  executing  a  Division,  that  the  com- 
pound stress  should  be  used,  under  one  of  the  two  conditions  of 
its  rapid  execution,  above  proposed.  In  the  first,  the  concrete 
receiv^es  the  radical  abruptness,  and  the  vanishing  occluded 
catch.  This  occlusion  prepares  the  way  for  a  second  radical, 
and  thus  by  successive  concretes  of  compound  stress,  with  a 
momentary  but  imperceptible  catch  between  them,  the  degrees 
of  the  Division  are  rapidly  traversed,  and  distinctly  marked. 
For  the  second  condition,  we  must  suppose  the  voice  to  make  a 


i 

I 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  53I 

concrete  movement,  through  the  scale,  to  the  -whole  extent  of 
the  designed  Division  ;  and  the  swell  of  an  emphatic  stress  to 
be  applied,  without  a  catch,  to  each  of  the  proximate  degrees  of 
the  scale,  within  that  extent.  This  may  be  illustrated,  by  sup- 
posing the  chain  of  oblique  figures  in  the  second  diagram  of  the 
shake,  to  be  drawn  out  to  a  straight  line,  so  as  to  represent  the 
stresses  on  a  rising  or  a  falling  scale.  A  Division  is  then,  a 
rapid  iteration  of  the  compound  stress,  on  every  proximate 
degree  of  the  scale,  for  a  given  extent,  in  an  upward  or  down- 
ward direction. 

There  are  various  ways  of  running  a  division,  or  as  we  may 
call  it,  a  Chain  of  compound  stress.  In  long  sweeps  of  agility, 
the  whole  compass  of  the  voice,  may  be  passed  through  in  one 
continued  chain  of  upward  or  downward  movement ;  or  the 
progress  may  be  less  extensive ;  or  it  may  be  made  by  varied 
groups  of  compound  stresses,  with  a  pause  between  the  aggre- 
gates. In  short,  the  compass  may  be  traversed  in  number- 
less ways,  by  the  pitch,  time,  and  manner  of  succession,  of  the 
co-sounds.  Sometimes  the  run  is  by  the  proximate  step  of  a 
semitone:  but  whatever  the  movements  may  be,  they  are  all 
performed  on  the  principle  of  the  compound  stress. 

Of  the  Melody  of  Song.  Having  described  the  forms,  of 
pitch,  time,  and  stress,  we  may  now  take  a  general  view  of 
their  combinations. 

The  structure  of  melody  exhibits  every  variety  in  the  number 
of  its  constituents,  and  in  their  interchangeable  union,  from  the 
use  of  a  simple  protracted  note  with  its  almost  imperceptible 
concrete  of  a  second,  which  we  called  Discrete  song ;  to  that  of 
every  form  of  the  concrete,  and  of  the  compound  stress  consti- 
tuting 'airs  of  agility'  or  'florid  execution,'  which  we  called 
Concrete  song.  This  distinction  however  serves  only  to  mark 
the  extremes  of  a  varied  use  of  the  voice  ;  since  song  is  scarcely 
ever  heard  in  the  strictly  discrete  form;  and  when  once  the 
concrete  movement  of  wider  intervals  than  the  second  is  admitted, 
no  definite  line  o,f  separation  can  be  drawn  between  the  execu- 
tion of  its  simple,  and  of  its  most  complicated  structure. 

In  general  terms  then,  and  without  pretending  to  describe  the 


532  A  BRIEF  ANALYSTS  OF  SONG. 

confines  of  each,  I  would  call  the  Discrete-melody,  that  ^vhich 
moves  by  proximate  degrees,  and  by  radical  change  under 
the  form  of  intonation,  represented  by  the  first  two  scales  of 
the  protracted  radical  and  vanish ;  and  showing  occasionally, 
because  it  can  scarcely  be  avoided,  a  concrete  movement  of  some 
of  the  wider  intervals.  This  is  the  style  of  song  used  by  the 
Church,  when  the  choir  is  assisted  by  the  congregation.  It  is 
suited  to  the  common  capacity  of  the  voice,  and  resembles  the 
instrumental  efiiect  of  the  organ  which  accompanies  it. 

I  would  call  the  Concrete  melody, That  disposition  of  the 

note,  concrete,  compound  stress,  and  every  form  of  time  and 
intonation,  which  constitutes,  within  due  limits,  the  delightful 
union  of  nature  and  art,  in  the  expression  of  song ;  but  which 
forced  beyond  all  bounds,  produces  the  extraordinary  and  un- 
meaning flights  of  a  mere  wonder-working  execution.  An 
execution  that  has  cunningly  joined  the  profits  of  the  Artist 
with  the  difficulties  of  his  art ;  and  with  all  who  do  not  see 
through  the  false  association,  confounds  a  fanatical  interest  in 
the  name  and  fashion  of  a  Singer  with  the  cultivated  feeling 
and  taste  of  a  musical  ear.  An  execution  that  has  at  last 
brought  an  audience,  too  often,  to  mistake  a  falling-in  with  the 
noisy  applause  of  a  surrounding  crowd,  for  their  own  individual 
sensibility  to  the  enrapturing  expression  of  melody,  and  the 
harmonizing  richness  of  its  perfecting  accompaniment. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  sum  up  the  diiFcrenccs  between  the 
construction  of  song  and  speech. 

The  Discrete-melody  of  song,  though  resembling  in  a  few 
points  the  melody  of  speech,  is  still  remarkably  distinguished 
from  it,  by  the  eifect  of  the  protracted  note,  and  by  the  more 
frequent  occurrence  of  wider  transitions  in  the  radical  change. 

In  the  Concrete-melody  of  song,  under  its  most  complicated 
form,  for  I  thus  choose  an  extreme  case,  the  difference  consists 
in  the  kind,  number,  and  uses  of  its  movements.  The  range  of 
its  mclodial  compass  exceeds  that  of  speech.  The  compound 
stress,  in  the  shake,  and  in  the  rapid  run  of.  divisions,  is  the 
most  frequent  constituent  of  airs  of  agility ;  but  is  never  used 
in  quick  time  by  the  speaking  voice.     The  only  function  common 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  533 

to  both  is  the  equable  concrete,  which  is  sometimes  set  to  the 
short  syllables  of  song ;  though  it  is  not  then  recognized  as  a 
feature  of  speech.  The  wider  waves,  too,  are  occasionally  used 
for  emphasis  in  discourse ;  but  the  combination  of  the  upward 
and  downward  concrete  into  this  movement,  occurs  perpetually 
in  the  florid  song. 

Of  the  Expression  of  Song.  Expression  in  song  is  the 
power  of  exciting  certain  feelings  by  means  of  the  pitch,  time, 
force,  quality,  and  abruptness  of  sound. 

It  appears  from  this  definition  that  the  materials  of  expression 
in  song  are  the  same  as  those  in  speech :  though  some  difierence 
will  be  found  in  their  special  employment,  and  respective  eflfect, 
in  the  two  cases.  The  Italians  who  have  taught  us  so  much  in 
music, —  and  who,  with  the  purpose  and  power  of  their  art  changed 
perhaps  to  a  vain-glorious  authority,  enslave  too  many  fashion- 
able and  often  musical  ears  to  their  National  Mannerism  and 
their  Skill, —  have  severally  divided  their  song,  with  reference, 
rather  to  the  style  of  its  execution,  and  the  places  in  which  it  is 
displayed ;  than  the  sentiments  it  expresses.  I  am  only  hinting 
at  an  arrangement,  upon  the  points  of  its  rudimental  functions, 
and  their  effects. 

In  the  general  view  of  the  subject  of  expression,  we  find,  the 
dignity  of  Song  is  produced  by  the  same  fulness  in  quality, 
length  of  time,  and  gravity  in  pitch,  that  give  an  elevated  and 
solemn  character  to  reading.  There  can  be  no  grandeur  in  a 
melody  with  the  reverse  of  these  conditions. 

A  lively  style  of  song,  on  the  contrary,  like  the  sprightly 
manner  of  discourse,  is  made  by  a  lighter  quality ;  a  quicker 
time ;  a  higher  course  of  pitch,  and  a  greater  variety  in  its 
successions.  The  Aria  Buffa  or  the  Comic  Song,  generally 
consists  of  such  short  quantities,  that  most  of  its  syllabic  im- 
pulses are  made  in  the  true  equable  concrete  of  speech.  Inde- 
pendently of  its  measure,  the  only  reason  why  in  some  cases  we 
know  it  to  be  song,  is  that  the  concrete  and  the  radical  pitch 
are  occasionally  of  wider  intervals  than  belong  to  the  current 
of  speech. 

The  plaintive  effect  of  the  semitone,  and  of  the  minor  third. 


534  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

which  is  only  a  peculiar  position  of  the  semitone,  is  similar  to 
the  chromatic  character  of  spoken  melody.  Perhaps  we  ought 
to  consider  the  expression  of  the  cadence  as  identical,  in  these 
two  uses  of  the  voice ;  since  the  return  to  the  key-note  in  song, 
does,  like  the  intonation  at  the  periods  of  discourse,  produce  the 
agreeable  feeling  of  satisfaction  and  repose. 

Let  us  take  another  view  of  this  subject ;  and  speak  of  the 
different  kinds  of  melody. 

The  Discrete-song  is  not  without  expression,  though  it  falls 
short  of  what  is  effected  by  a  judicious  use  of  the  more  impres- 
sive vocal  movements.  Its  sources  lie  in  quality,  pitch,  time  and 
stress. 

The  mere  sound  of  a  prolonged  note,  may  give  a  peculiar 
character  to  song.  Fulness  produces  solemnity ;  smoothness 
excites  the  idea  of  grace;  and  in  the  grotesque  efforts  of  the 
comic  song,  the  extreme  and  distorted  variations  of  quality  give 
rise  to  a  sense  of  the  gay  or  the  ridiculous.  As  regards  quality, 
the  principles  of  expression  are  similar  in  speech  and  song :  but 
perhaps  the  effect  of  quality  is  more  obvious  in  the  latter. 

The  expression  of  Pitch  consists  in  the  transition  through  cer- 
tain intervals.  The  discrete-melody  can  therefore  dispky  the 
plaintiveness  of  the  semitone,  and  occasionally  of  the  minor 
third ;  together  with  what  may  be  effected  by  the  successions  of 
other  intervals  of  the  scale. 

The  Discrete  song  may,  by  its  Time,  be  either  grave  or  gay. 
It  appears,  that  the  longer  quantity  of  song  is  more  agreeable 
than  the  short  syllabic  impulses  of  speech,  even  when  they  each 
have  the  same  order  of  pitch.  This  perhaps  arises  from  an  asso- 
ciation of  the  protracted  notes  of  song,  with  the  effect  of  long 
quantity  in  speech :  for  extended  quantity  is  always  the  sign  of 
a  stronjj  or  dignified  emotion. 

The  radical  and  the  median  stress  are  applicable  to  the  pro- 
tracted note  of  the  discrete-melody:  but  a  varied  swell  of  the 
median,  constitutes  the  principal  means  of  expression.  The  pro- 
tracted note  may  also  bear  the  tremor. 

Some  of  the  more  moderate  forms  of  the  wave  may  be  admit- 
ted into  what  I   have  called,  without  assigning  a  very  definite 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  535 

boundary  to  its  nature,  the  discrete  song.  Now  all  the  forms  of 
expression,  both  in -the  Concrete  and  the  Discrete,  whether 
of  the  grave,  the  gay,  or  the  plaintive ;  and  whether  produced 
by  pitch,  time,  quality,  or  force,  are  to  be  considered  as  inde- 
pendent of  all  purpose  in  thought  or  meaning:  for  it  will  be 
shown  presently,  that  except  in  some  accidental  or  habitual  asso- 
ciations, song  has,  apart  from  the  display  of  feeling  by  words, 
an  expression  altogether  of  its  own. 

From  some  very  general  descriptions,  and  some  known  par- 
ticulars of  the  Greek  song,  it  might  be  inferred  that  its  most 
esteemed  melody  was  of  this  discrete  kind  ;  enriched  with  all  the 
concrete  graces  of  expression,  admissible  into  its  structure.  I  speak 
of  song,  rendered  touching,  self-relying,  and  unambitious  ;  song, 
with  its  all-sufficient  melodial,  and  its  own  peculiar  harmonic 
resources  for  delight,  free  from  vain  intrusion,  and  restricted 
to  itself  by  the  effective  principles  of  Grecian  taste.  For  we 
must  suppose,  nay  we  know  from  a  satirical  record, —  there  was 
a  like  cold  caprice  in  composition,  and  a  like  difficulty  in  execu- 
tion for  the  profit  of  the  Singer,  and  for  the  noisy  excitement 
of  the  Audience,  that  at  present  so  often  degrade  the  soul  of 
music,  by  exalting  its  fingers  and  its  throat. 

It  has  been  thought, —  the  Cantus  planus  of  the  early  Christ- 
ian Psalmody,  improved  afterwards  to  the  Ambrosian  and  the 
Gregorian  Chant,  is  a  traditional  descent  of  a  form  of  the  Greek 
Temple-Music,  through  the  old  Roman  ritual.  However  this 
may  be,  there  is  a  striking  analogy,  both  as  to  structure  and 
efiect,  between  the  Diatonic  melody,  and  the  Plain-Cliant,  in  its 
early  simplicity.  The  Chant  employed  but  four  lines  of  the 
stafi"  in  the  range  of  its  pitch  ;  the  succession  of  its  notes  was 
by  proximate  degrees,  through  the  radical  pitch  of  a  second ;  it 
never  set  more  than  one  note  to  a  syllable;  and  used  but  two 
divisions  of  time,  the  long  and  the  short.  Now  in  this  account, 
substitute  the  Equable  concrete  for  the  Note,  and  the  resem- 
blance changes  almost  to  identity.  In  its  effect,  the  Chant  had 
oriffinallv,  and  when  not  desecrated  by  'modern  improvements' 
of  wider  concrete  and  discrete  intervals,  and  affected  gi-aces,  still 
has,  in  its  holy  purpose  of  worship  and  prayer,  those  deep  and 


536  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

long  draTfn  notes  of  solemn  dignity,  -vyliicli  is  but  a  transcending 
degree  of  the  character,  given  to  epic  and  dramatic  reading,  and 
to  parts  of  the  Church-service,  by  the  fulness  of  an  orotund 
voice,  in  the  diatonic  melody.* 

The  character  of  the  Concrete-song  appears  in  various 
degrees,  from  the  limits  of  the  style  last  described,  to  that  intri- 
cate composition  of  the  vocal  constituents  which  defeats  their 
purposes,  by  an  annihilation  of  all  meaning  and  sentiment. 

The  expression  of  this  melody  includes  all  the  means  enume- 
rated in  the  account  of  the  Discrete ;  with  the  addition  of  other 
more  elaborate  forms  of  intonation ;  which,  employed  within  due 
bounds,  by  a  voice  and  ear,  true  to  the  calls  of  educated  senti- 
ment and  taste,  and  directed    by  fitness  and  feeling,  produce 

*  We  have  in  the  course  of  this  work,  not  only  pointed  out  similarities  between 
the  principles  of  Music  and  of  Elocution,  but  have  shown  their  very  materials 
or  tunable  constituents  to  be  common  to  both. 

The  further  we  look  into  the  Arts,  the  more  closely  we  find  them  related  to 
each  other :  yet  who  will  say,  there  is  a  resemblance  between  Architecture 
and  Speech  ?  To  the  eye  and  ear  of  the  Doorkeeper  of  the  Capitol  who  listened 
to  Cicero,  there  could  have  been  none.  But  turn  an  inquiring  and  reflective 
mind  to  a  consideration  of  the  principles  that  constitute,  or  create,  a  similarity 
between  them ;  and  observe  how,  in  the  analytic  Perspective  of  a  philosophic 
taste,  they  approach  each  other ;  and  with  a  still  extended  view  of  their  effects, 
how,  by  those  effects  and  principles,  they  mingle  into  one. 

I  have  long  thought  of  the  analogy  to  which  I  here  allude  ;  but  believing  it 
might  pass  for  a  metaphoric  extravagance,  rather  than  an  illustration,  I  have 
not  till  this  last  moment,  dared  to  call  the  Diatonic  Melody,  the  Doric  order  of 
Speech.  In  this  country  at  least,  I  have  7net  wilh  none,  so  much  interested  in 
the  /Esthetic  principles  of  these  arts,  as  to  wish  to  discover,  or  desire  to  be 
told  their  points  of  resemblance.  When  however,  I  think  of  a  Doric  Peripteral 
Temple,  which  by  its  concentrated  Design,  impresses  itself  on  the  mind  by  an 
image,  only  second  to  reality,  I  see  an  ambitious  sameness  in  form  aud  light, 
yet  varied  in  line  and  shadow,  just  to  show-forth  the  striking  elegance  of  its 
Unity ;  a  Grandeur  rising  above  heaviness,  till  it  appears  in  Grace ;  and  a 
Simplicity,  with  only  such  appropriate  ornaments  as  make  them  necessary 
parts  of  an  undivided  whole.  With  this  suggestive  picture  before  me,  it 
brings-up  in  related  effect,  the  likeness  of  Roscius  risen  again  to  the  Stage, 
and  breaking  his  silence,  with  the  fulness  of  the  orotund  in  a  diatonic  melody  ; 
impressing  the  respectful  ear  by  a  grave  simplicity  in  time  and  intonation, 
varied  only  to  give  grace  to  its  dignity ;  and  moving  occasionally  with  con- 
trasted, but  unobtrusive  force  and  spirit,  through  the  wider  intervals  of  a  just 
and  appropriate  expression. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  537 

effects  in  the  liigliest  degree  impressive,  delicate  and  delightful. 
The  further  use  of  the  radical  and  median  force  on  the  rising 
and  falling  concrete,  as  well  as  on  the  wave,  adds  a  brilliant 
variety  to  its.  character.  We  have  in  the  Bravuras  and  Yolatas 
of  this  kind  of  song,  all  the  extraordinary  coloring  of  the  com- 
pound stress,  in  the  production  of  the  shake,  and  the  endless 
run  of  Divisions,  through  their  constituents  of  stress  and  pitch. 
It  like^wise  commands  powers  of  expression,  derived  from  the 
Tremulous  scale,  both  through  the  plaintiveness  of  the  semitone,, 
and  the  laughing  movement  of  wider  intervals. 

As  song  employs  in  its  composition,  the  expressional  means  of 
speech,  one  would  suppose  that  certain  movements  must  have  in 
each  case  an  identical  effect.  But  it  is  not  always  so.  We  have 
learned  that  some  functions  represent  the  same  sentiments  in 
both.  There  are,  however,  many  forms  of  intonation  which  lose 
their  meaning  and  force  when  separated  from  words,  and  trans- 
ferred to  song.  On  the  subject  of  the  vocal  signs  of  the  pas- 
sions, it  was  shown  that  their  purpose  is  not  only  modified  by  the 
conventional  sign,  but  in  some  instances  is  purely  dependent  upon 
it.  This  was  illustrated  by  reference  to  the  voices  of  birds :  but 
song  affords  a  more  satisfactory  proof.  For  since  its  elaborate 
structure  does  employ  all  those  forms  of  concrete  and  of  radical 
pitch,  together  with  the  wave,  that  produce  the  expression  of 
speech,  we  ought  during  the  varied  course  of  its  melody,  to  be 
constantly  recognizing  the  vocal  signs  of  interrogation,  surprise, 
positiveness,  sneer,  contempt,  and  raillery ;  whereas  the  song 
which  makes  the  freest  use  of  these  signs,  never  conveys  any  of 
these  sentiments,  except  when  joined  to  language. 

Song,  nevertheless,  without  the  use  of  words,  may  be  power- 
fully expressive ;  and  it  is  so  by  the  use  of  these  very  concretes, 
quantities,  waves,  and  swelling  stresses,  that  give  the  senti- 
mental meaning  to  speech  :  yet  the  expression  of  song  is  peculiar 
to  itself,  and  in  very  few,  if  any,  instances  has  relation  to  the  sense 
or  sentiment  of  particular  words  or  phrases.  Persons  who  enjoy 
the  melody  of  song,  must  perceive,  the  emotions  created  by  it 
are  altogether  so  indefinite,  that  they  are  not  able' to  refer  them 
35 


1 


638  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

to  any  other  source,  than  that  of  primary  sensation,  or  subse- 
quent memory  and  association,  nor  to  reduce  the  signs  of  expres- 
sion even  to  such  classes  of  effects  as  have  been  instinctively 
felt  in  speech,  though  they  have  never  been  named. 

Upon  this  subject,  I  would  ask  two  questions...  Has  song  a 
system  of  expression  properly  its  own,  and  does  our  indefinite 
perception  of  its  forms  arise  from  this  system  never  having  been 
analyzed  and  rendered  familiar  and  specific  by  names-?  Or, 
does  the  expression  of  song  depend  on  an  association  between 
its  vocal  movements,  and  those  of  speech:  the  former  assuming 
the  agreeable  effect  of  the  latter,  without  their  definite  meaning. 

By  a  comparison  of  the  characteristics  of  speech  and  song, — 
the  only  tAvo  classes  of  the  vocal  functions  capable  of  exciting 
the  mental  conditions  of  sentiment  and  thought, —  it  appears 
that  song  has  a  system  of  expression  of  its  own,  distinct  in  most 
points  from  that  of  speech.  If  the  reader  has  followed  me 
attentively  thus  far,  he  must  have  a  full  knowledge  of  the  means 
of  expression  in  speech ;  and  of  the  precepts  at  least  for  that 
expression,  if  he  has  not  the  power  of  accurately  executing 
them.  We  here  offer  a  brief  record  of  our  observation  on  the 
expression  of  song,  to  show  by  comparison,  what  is  peculiar  to  each. 

And  first.  No  idea,  thought,  term,  or  proposition  is  directly 
conveyed  by  song.  It  only  excites,  when  duly  composed  and 
executed,  a  mental  sensation,  distinctively  called  feeling^  always 
agreeable,  except  under  some  accidental  and  pervertive  associa- 
tion. It  is  a  question  so  inviting  to  dispute,  that  we  will  not 
stop  to  consider  it, —  whether  these  agreeable  feelings  arc  exclu- 
sively the  direct  result  of  the  simple  vocal  impression,  or  are 
indirectly  derived  from  memory  and  association ;  and  thus,  in  a 
manner,  connected  with  thought  and  meaning.  "When  we  hear 
Song,  we  are  pleased  with  the  quality  of  its  notes :  and  this, 
quality  is  far  more  agreeable  than  that  of  the  speaking  voice ; 
while  its  greater  prolongation  gives  a  greater  measure  to  the 
agreeable  sensation.  This  sensation  or  feeling  produced  by  the 
quality  of  a  prolonged  note,  is  therefore  peculiar  to  song. 

Second.     The  effects  of  the  succession  of  melody  in  song,  are 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  539 

quite  distinct  from  those  of  speech.  For  speech  having  no 
arrangement  of  Key^  to  govern  its  progressions,  has  no  relation 
of  concord  and  discord,  so  to  call  it,  between  succeeding  con- 
cretes ;  and  these  by  perpetually  changing,  afford  no  fixed  or 
continuous  pitch,  by  which  those  relations  may  be  compared  : 
the  second,  third,  fifth,  octave,  and  other  intervals  being  terms 
only  for  the  extent  of  pitch,  not  for  harmonic  relations.  But 
song  by  its  continuous  notes  and  its  Tcey^  has  the  relations  of  its 
sounds  measurable  under  Avhat  has  been  called  harmony  in  suc- 
cession. It  is  on  this  resource  —  without  relation  to  thought  or 
passion, —  its  powder  of  exciting  pleasure  depends:  and  this 
resource,  speech  —  having  its  melodial  expression  from  the  con- 
trast of  high  and  low,  without  relation  to  harmony, —  does  not 
in  the  least  degree  possess.  Now  the  succession  of  intonations 
in  song,  when  associated  with  the  other  modes  of  quality,  time, 
and  force,  and  properly  distributed,  is  capable  within  itself,  of 
exciting  the  sentiments  of  Grandeur,  Solemnity,  Plaintivencss, 
Gaiety,  and  Grace.  And  if  to  these  be  added  what  may  be 
called  a  perception  of  Oddity,  or  the  Grotesque,  they  will  per- 
haps include  all  the  effects,  that  independently  of  the  individu- 
alities of  fancy  and  the  ear,  seem  to  be  within  the  expressive 
powers  of  song.  From  this  view  we  exclude  all  those  poetic  and 
transcendental  analogies,  not  so  near, — to  adopt  their  own  st^dc, 
—  even  sls  far-fetch' d,  if  a  resemblance,  but  infinitely  distant, 
if  at  all  a  parallel:  such  as  are  found  in  'Alexander's  Feast,' 
'St.  Cecilia's  Day,'  and  the  'Ode  on  the  Passions,' together 
with  not  a  few  in  Haydn's  '  Creation,'  and  all  throughout  that 
once  fashionable  and  serious  folly,  the  'Battle  of  Prague.' 
These  pretensions  and  falsities  hold  the  same  relation  to  tlie  real 
expression  of  song,  that  the  pretensions  and  falsities  of  Recita- 
tive do  to  the  truth  of  the  expression  of  speech. 

We  have  said,  the  successions  alone,  of  melody  in  song,  and 
not  its  individual  notes,  do,  with  their  varieties  in  time,  and 
without  embracing  thought  or  meaning,  produce  its  expression. 
Hence  the  permutations  in  the  order  of  these  notes,  for  an  agree- 
able succession  would  scciu  to  be  innumerable.     But  the  more 


} 


540  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

agreeable  successions,  whether  they  affect  the  mind  instinctively, 
or  through  cultivated  habit,  or  by  association  with  feelings 
derived  from  other  senses,  might  like  the  phrases  of  spoken 
melody,  with  their  respective  feelings,  be  reduced  to  a  few  forms, 
and  thus  be  described  and  named.  As  ftir  as  I  have  been  able 
to  assign  the  agreeable  effects  of  melody,  to  certain  phrases,  the 
forms  do  not  seem  to  be  numerous ;  and  are  really  so  simple, 
that  they  probably  have  been  known  and  used  in  song  from 
immemorial  time  ;  yet  their  intermingling  successions, —  as  with 
the  long  unknown  and  apparently  confused  phrases  of  intonation 
in  speech, —  have  to  this  day,  prevented  their  being  separately 
perceived  and  named. 

Composers  are  often  charged  with  plagiary  of  certain  pas- 
sages of  melody.  But  all  such  passages,  or  Phrases  of  Expres- 
sion as  they  may  be,  or  are  called,  have  from  time  immemorial 
been  familiar  to  the  ear,  and  enjoyed  by  feeling,  and  have  come 
down  to  us  without  known  Authorship  or  Date.  On  this  sub- 
ject then,  of  the  individual  form  or  phrase,  there  can  be  no  more 
originality,  than  there  can  be  on  that  of  the  syllables  of  speech, 
which  in  all  their  permutations,  have  throughout  time  and  among 
nations,  already  been  made.  The  mass  of  Composers, —  like  the 
mass  of  Writers,  with  their  common-places  of  thought  and  lan- 
gungc, —  again  and  again  borrow  and  repeat  the  common-place 
phrases  of  melody ;  while  a  few,  like  Bacon  and  Shakspeai-e,  or 
Haydn  and  Mozart,  choicely  select  and  combine  those  original 
thoughts,  in  one  case,  and  expressive  vocal  notes,  in  the  other, 
which,  in  their  exalted  association  with  nature  and  truth,  are 
so  far  above  being  vulgarized  by  general  imitation,  as  to  be 
new  and  to  please  forever. 

Under  the  class  of  phrases  of  expression  in  song,  are  included 
those  groups  of  notes  called  Graces.  And  here,  speech  has 
nothing  corresponding  to  the  Beat,  the  Turn  and  Shake.  Per- 
haps however,  there  is  a  very  remote  analogy,  in  effect,  between 
the  median  stress  of  speech  and  the  appogiature ;  the  Tremolo, 
and  the  prolongation  of  the  tremor  on  one  line  of  pitch  ;  between 
the  anticipative  character  of  the  prepared  cadence,  and  the  sus- 
pension of  the  shake,  preceding  a  close  on  the  key-note  of  song. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  54I 

But  why  has  song  been  so  long  without  a  classification  of  other 
phrases,  with  their  peculiar  and  no  less  striking  expression,  than 
that  of  its  ornamental  Graces  ? 

•  That  song  has  its  own  peculiar  expression,  in  no  way  con- 
nected with  thought,  or  sensible  meaning  of  any  kindj  is  proved 
by  a  well  known  fact  in  lyric  history.  It  has  long  been  the 
practice  of  song  writers,  to  adapt  their  verses  to  the  music  of 
existing  airs ;  nor,  with  an  exception  of  the  use  of  the  minor 
third,  does  this  seem  to  have  been  done  under  the  idea  of  there 
being  any  peculiar  fitness  of  the  melody  or  successions  of  pitch  to 
the  Air, —  though  there  may  have  been  in  its  time,  quality  and 
force, — to  any  determined  ideas  or  meaning:  since  words  of 
every  different  sense  and  expression  are  adapted  to  the  same  air, 
and  are  received  as  satisfactory,  without  the  least  perception  of 
a  want  of  congruity. 

I  have  thus  endeavored  to  furnish  some  desultory  observations 
and  thoughts,  in  answer  to  the  questions  proposed  in  the  text ; 
upon  the  truth  of  which,  if  the  subject  deserves  it,  others  must 
finally  decide. 

We  are  now  able  to  comprehend,  why  persons  who  sing  with 
the  greatest  execution,  are  rarely  or  never  good  readers.  One 
cause  may  be  assigned,  in  the  difference  of  the  respective  move- 
ments ;  particularly  the  want  of  the  full  command  over  the  equa- 
ble concrete  in  all  its  varieties  of  time,  by  singers,  since  they 
rarely  employ  it  except  for  the  short  quantities  of  the  comic 
song.  The  principle  reason  why  those  distinguished  by  great 
vocal  flexibility,  in  elaborate  composition,  are  generally  very 
indifferent  actors,  is  that  this  intricate  execution  is  always  made 
with  a  sacrifice  of  expression.  On  some  points,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  expression  of  the  more  simple  song,  and  of  speech  is  identi- 
cal ;  and  even  when  this  song  does  not  convey  the  special  senti- 
ments of  speech,  by  the  use  of  its  intonations,  still  it  has  an 
agreeable  and  impressive  character  of  its  own.  But  the  practice 
of  the  Bravura  song,  with  some  rare  exceptions,  is  totally  regard- 
less of  the  instinctive  intonation  of  passion.  In  it,  long  and 
short  quantities,  the  radical  explosion  and  the  median  swell,  the 
diatonic  succession  and   the  chromatic,  the   plaintive  and  the 


542  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG. 

laughing  t4'emor,  the  various  forms  of  the  -wave,  concrete  transi- 
tions and  discrete  skips  from  the  deepest  bass  to  a  piercing  fal- 
sctte,  are  made  to  play  with  each  other  in  every  variety  of  per- 
mutation. In  short,  as  the  voice,  like  the  throat  of  the  mock- 
ing-bird, mingles  all  its  possibilities,  without  regard  to  design, 
the  singer  thereby  confuses  that  natural  association  between  sen- 
timent and  vocal  sign,  which  good  speaking  always  requires,  and 
which  should  also  be  the  characteristic  of  sons: :  For  the  habit- 
ual  practice  of  the  Bravura,  equally  with  that  of  Mimicry,  per- 
verts or  destroys  the  origiilal  purpose  of  expression  in  speech. 
If  I  had  the  opportunities  of  European  experience,  I  might 
speak  with  more  universality  and  precision ;  but  as  far  as  I  have 
observed,  singers  who  excel  in  the  florid  execution,  acquired  by 
the  mere  drill  of  the  Conservatorio,  and  exercised  in  the  routine 
of  the  Concert-room  or  the  Stage,  are  not  often  gifted  with 
nicety  or  comprehensiveness  of  conception,  nor  with  that  sensi- 
bility which  sometimes  accompanies  a  delicate  organization  of 
ear.  For  the  temperament  of  a  singer  can  as  readily  be 
perceived,  in  his  peculiar  management  of  time,  stress,  and  into- 
nation, as  the  mind  and  feeling  of  a  writer  can  be  gathered  from 
his  style. 

What  is  called  a  musical  ear,  seems  to  depend  on  an  inscruta- 
ble instinct,  and  the  exercise  of  attentive  observation  by  this 
sense :  and  though  our  history  indicates,  that  high  accomplish- 
ments in  elocution  must  always  be  grounded  on  its  discrimina- 
tions :  still  the  training  of  the  ear,  by  those  who  excel  in  the 
aiFccted  difficulties  of  the  Florid  song,  and  the  formal  character 
both  of  taste  and  feeling  thereby  rendered  habitual,  must  in  a 
great  measure,  destroy  the  natural  association  between  senti- 
ment and  vocal  sign,  constituting  the  proper  expression  of 
speech.  There  have  been  Actors,  who  under  an  enlightened 
system  of  dramatic  instruction,  might  have  entered  into  the 
pliilosophy  both  of  passion  and  speech,  and  who,  by  discipline, 
could  have  reached  the  flexibility  of  florid  execution.  But  we 
have  reason  to  believe,  that  had  this  power  over  the  intricacies 
of  song,  been  habitually  exerted,  particularly  unrler  the  absorb- 
ing vanity,  so  apt,  in   this   case,  to   accompany  success,  it  must 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  SONG.  543 

have  destroyed  that  command  over  the  equable  concrete,  which 
woukl  have  enabled  theui^to  give  their  consummate  intonation  to 
the  language  of  the  tragf*  poet.  We  will  suppose,  Mrs.  Siddons, 
with  a  nice  sense  of  Time  and  Tune,  might  perhaps  have  joined 
voice  with  the  incomparable  Mara,  in  the  expressive  songs  of 
Handel  or  Mozart,  without  impairing  her  power  over  Shaks- 
peare.  But  she  would  have  been  lost  forever  to  all  the  mind 
and  soul  of  speech,  had  she  been  trained  with  Catalani,  to  that 
wonderful  facility  which  was  able  to  outstrip  even  the  fashion- 
serving  contrivances  and  difficulties  of  the  composers  of  the  day. 


OF  RECITATIVE. 

The  term  Recitative  is  applied  to  the  intonation  used  in  cer- 
tain dramatic  and  vocal  compositions.  It  had  its  name  from 
being  employed  in  narrative  or  recital,  in  contradistinction  to 
the  intonation  of  song,  which  was  appropriated  to  the  expression 
of  sentiment  or  passion.  Recitative  is  however  employed  at 
present  in  the  Italian  Opera,  and  other  compositions,  as  the 
means  of  expression,  as  well  as  for  the  common  purposes  of  the 
dialogue. 

Xothing  has  puzzled  musical  logicians  more  than  the  attempt 
to  define  this  term. 

Rousseau,  in  his  dictionary,  speaks  of  it  thus :  '  Recitative. 
A  discourse  recited  in  a  musical  and  harmonious  tone.  It  is  a 
method  of  singing  which  approaches  nearly  to  speech,  a  decla- 
mation in  music,  in  Avhich  the  musician  should  imitate  as  much 
as  possible,  the  inflections  of  tlie  declaiming  voice.' 

Busby  gives  the  following  definition  :  '  Recitative.  A  species 
of  musical  recitation,  forming  the  medium  between  Air  and 
rhetorical  declamation,  and  in  which  the  composer  and  performer 


544  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

rejecting  the  rigorous  rules  of  time,  endeavor  to  imitate  the 
inflections,  accent,  and  emphasis,  of  natural  speech.' 

One  calls  '  Recitative,  a  kind  of  singing  that  differs  hut  little 
from  ordinary  pronunciation.' 

Another  says,  'Recitative  is  speech  delivered  through  the 
medium  of  musical  intonation.' 

While  others,  still  more  general,  describe  it  as,  '  singing 
speech,'  and,  'speaking  song.' 

Before  we  are  conscious  of  what  we  require  in  knowledge,  we 
never  perceive  how  little  satisfies  us.  We  now  have  learned 
enough,  to  authorize  us  to  say,  that  all  these  definitions  though 
written  to  instruct,  contain  no  further  explanation,  than  might 
be  given  by  the  humblest  auditor  at  an  oratorio.  By  the  terms 
of  all  these  definitions,  Recitative  is  somehow  made  up  of  speech 
and  song.  Now  the  elementary  movements  of  song  had,  in  a 
degree,  been  known  and  described ;  and  therefore  the  meaning 
of  its  term  in  the  definition,  might  have  been  intelligible.  But, 
as  regards  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  speech,  on  which  these 
definitions  are  in  part  constructed,  let  us  hear  Rousseau,  under 
the  very  article  we  have  quoted  above.  '  The  inflections  of  the 
speaking  voice'  says  he,  '  are  not  hounded  hy  musical  intervals. 
They  are  uncontrolled,  and  impossible  to  he  determined.' 

An  understanding  therefore  of  the  nature  of  Recitative, 
through  the  nature  of  its  mingled  or  interwoven  constituents, 
song  and  speech,  the  latter  of  which  was  thus  declared  to  be 
utterly  inappreciable,  must  according  to  Rousseau  at  least,  have 
required  some  other  powers  of  comprehension,  than  we  at  pre- 
sent possess.  For  having  no  perception  of  the  characteristics  of 
one  of  the  constituents,  his  knowledge  of  Recitative  seems  to 
have  been,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  jest,  not  unlike  that  of  our 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  heads  of  a  family,  when  the 
father  is  married  to  an  invisible  woman. 

In  general  description.  Speech,  Song,  and  Recitative,  are 
varied  forms  of  intonation ;  deriving  their  specific  differences 
from  the  number,  kind,  and  combination  of  their  respective 
vocal  movements.  Having  described  the  melodial  peculiarities 
of  speech  and  song,  let  us  by  the  light  of  our  history,  endeavor 
to  point  out  the  characteristic  intonation  of  Recitative. 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE.  545 

The  plainest  style  of  Recitative,  for  its  style  varies,  is  charac- 
terized by  the  following  construction. 

First.  It  has  no  systematic  rythmus  or  musical  measure  in 
the  progression  of  melody. 

Second.  It  never  gives  more  than  one  note  to  a  single  sylla- 
ble ;  while  song  sometimes  runs  several  short  notes  over  one. 

Third.  It  employs  the  protracted  radical  and  protracted 
vanish,  and  the  wave,  on  long  quantities,  and  occasionally  the 
equable  concrete  on  short  ones. 

Fourth.  Its  melodial  intervals,  or  the  discrete  movements  of 
its  radical  pitch,  are  of  every  extent,  both  in  upward  and  down- 
ward transition. 

Fifth.  It  employs  the  means  of  time,  force,  and  quality  of 
voice. 

These  are  the  simple  constituents  of  Plain  Recitative :  and 
the  following  are  some  of  the  principles  of  their  application. 

Its  melody  consists  of  phrases  of  the  monotone,  and  of  the 
radical  pitch  through  every  interval,  even  to  the  rising  and 
falling  octave.     It  makes  no  systematic  distinction  between  a 
diatonic  ground-work,  and  the  emphasis  of  wider  intervals,  such 
as  gives  effective  power  and  dignity  to  speech :  the  successions 
of  pitch  being  rather  according  to  the  promiscuous  mingling  of 
song.     I  have  not  recognized,  in  what  is  called  unaccompanied 
recitative,  any  application  of  the  doctrine  of  key ;  its  melodial 
relationships  having  in  this  respect  the  characteristic  of  speech. 
The   cadence  or  full  pause  is  made  by  phrases  of  every  form, 
from  the  monotone,  to  the  rising  and  falling  discrete  octave : 
the  current  melody,   consisting  of  the  protracted  radical,  or 
protracted  vanish,  with  an  occasional  rising  and  falling  concrete 
and  wave.      All   these  constituents  are  so   intermingled   and 
arranged  by  the  composer,  as  not  only  to  suit  that  caprice,  he 
may  choose  to  call  Expression,  but  also  to  give  that  order  to  the 
constituents, — he  may  choose  to  call  Melody.     If  however  we 
give  up  our  belief  that  Recitative  is  wonderfully  expressive,  we 
may  understand,  as  well  as  plainly  hear,  how  this  supposed 
variety,  founded  on  wider  intervals  and  waves,  with  a  frequent 
recurrence  of  upward  and  downward  skips,  and  with  so  many 


546  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

plunging  cadences,  may,  by  its  constant  and  violent  obtrusions, 
be  shockingly  monotonous  to  the  Natural  Science  of  an  ear, 
accustomed  to  a  true  vocal  expression,  under  the  easy  and 
gratifying  variety  of  cultivated  speech. 

Such  being  the  structure  of  Recitative,  its  expression,  if  it 
has  any  to  an  unprejudiced  ear,  can  have  but  little  resemblance 
to  that  of  speech.  Making  the  intonations  of  the  speaking 
voice,  which  it  pretends  to  borrow,  the  measure  of  this  power, 
the  only  forms  of  expression  I  have  been  able  to  perceive  in 
plain  Recitative  above  described,  are  included  under  the  follow- 
ing heads. 

First.  The  expression  of  slow  and  of  rapid  utterance  ;  and 
of  long  and  of  short  quantity. 

Second.  That  of  the  degrees  of  force ;  both  as  to  emphasis 
and  drift. 

Third.  That  of  quality ;  particularly  of  guttural  vibration, 
and  aspiration. 

Fourth.  That  of  intonation ;  by  the  occasional  employment 
of  the  discrete  rising  fifth  or  octave,  for  inquiry  ;  of  the  down- 
ward skip,  for  positive  or  imperative  declaration ;  ami  of  the 
wave  of  the  semitone  and  minor  third,  for  plaintiveness.  But 
even  these  are  mingled  with  unmeaning  intervals,  and  so  dis- 
tracted by  them,  that  like  the  same  intervals  in  the  throat  of 
the  mocking-bird,  they  lose  much,  if  not  all  their  expressive 
character.  Nor  indeed  are  they  applied  according  to  invariable 
rule  :  for  I  have  heard  true  interrogative  phrases,  intonated  with 
a  simple  monotone,  or  ditone ;  declarative  questions  with  a 
downward  fifth,  or  octave;  and  forcible  imperatives,  with  the 
widest  ascending  intervals.  This,  with  the  Little  Book  and 
pencil  in  hand,  was  noted  at  the  Opera. 

This  plain  Recitative  would  at  once  strike  the  common  ear  as 
very  peculiar,  and  quite  distinct  from  speech  and  song  :  and 
the  above  description  of  its  structure  and  character,  for  it  can 
scarcely  bo  called  expression,  must  when  compared  with  the 
structure  and  expression  of  speech  and  song,  give  us  a  definite 
perception  of  these  three  vocal  fufictions,  and  enable  us  to  point 
out  what  is  peculiar  to  each.     We  perceive,  that  one  cannot 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE.  547 

assume  the  character  of  another,  without  dropping  its  own 
character,  and  becoming  altogether  that  other :  and  that  defini- 
tions which  set  forth  Recitative,  as  a  musical  intonation  of 
speech,  or  an  engrafting  of  the  inflections  of  speech  on  song,  or 
of  song  on  speech,  are,  in  pretending  to  recognize  the  character 
of  each,  without  either  meaning  or  truth.  We  can  further 
perceive,  that  as  speech  never  employs  the  protracted  notes,  but 
always  the  equable  concrete,  it  does  not,  through  this  broad 
distinction,  partake  of  the  character  of  song  or  recitative ; 
while  both  these  last,  using  the  protracted  notes,  are  more 
nearly  related ;  and  without  much  change  of  character  do 
mutually  pass  into  each  other.  And  so  it  happens,  that  the 
singer  often  gradually  changes  the  form  of  the  above  described 
Plain  Recitative,  to  that  of  florid  execution,  by  freely  intro- 
ducing all  the  intonations  of  song.  Hence  instead,  of  the  plain 
melody,  constructed  of  the  few  constituents  above  mentioned, 
lie  introduces  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  the  rising  and  the  fall- 
ing concrete  in  all  their  forms; — tremors, —  notes, —  waves,  and 
even  divisions  and  shakes :  in  short,  while  applying  these  con- 
stituents, under  a  barred  and  rythmic  time,  he  does,  in  effect, 
produce  the  full  characteristic  of  song  itself. 

In  regarding  then  these  three  forms  of  intonation,  it  appears, 
that  Speech  and  Song,  both  by  construction  and  effect,  arc  most 
unlike  each  other :  that  even  the  plainest  Recitative,  by  con- 
struction more  nearly  resembles  song,  and  in  its  execution  by 
vocalists,  most  readily  runs  into  it:  that  Speech  has  the  most 
extended  and  delicate  powers  of  expression  ;  since  there  is  in 
it,  the  union  of  a  conventional  language  with  an  instinctive 
intonation,  and  a  perfect  adaptation  of  one  to  the  other :  that 
Song,  exclusively  of  words,  by  the  succession  of  its  notes,  and 
concrete  intervals,  and  other  forms  of  intonation,  together  with 
quality,  quantity,  and  force,  has  its  own  peculiar  manner  of 
exciting  feelings  of  grandeur,  pathos,  gaiety,  and  grace :  and 
that  Recitative,  which,  by  one  of  the  not  unfrequent  delusions  of 
perception,  Avas  originally  introduced,  and  has  since  been  con- 
tinued for  centuries,  as  embracing  within  itself  the  characteristic 
expression  of  both  speech  and  song,  does,  by  this  vain  effort  to 


548  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

join  two  incompatible  functions,  really  destroy  tlie  peculiar  and 
delightful  nature  of  each. 

Composers  of  Recitative  may  among  themselves  have  framed 
rules  for  a  conventional  expression,  to  which  being  long  accus- 
tomed, they  may  have  come  at  last  to  believe  them  to  be  the 
rules  of  natural  expression.  If  those,  not  under  this  influence 
of  habit,  do  sometimes  listen  with  pleasure  to  Recitative,  or 
say  they  do ;  is  it  not,  that  this  vocal  Oddity  having  been 
invented,  or  restored  in  modern  Italy, —  Italy  has,  on  this  point, 
assumed  to  give  law  to  musical  taste :  that  it  is  expected  at  the 
Opera :  and  that  it  is  carelessly  heard,  in  anticipation  of  the 
succeeding  Air  ?  Such  associative  influences  are  not  uncommon 
in  perverting  our  judgment  and  reconciling  us  to  bad  taste. 
Besides,  it  is  as  far  from  being  true,  in  Art,  as  it  is  in  Govern- 
ment, that  allowed  dictatorial  authority  is  a  protection  against 
error  and  corruption.  The  Archictecture  of  Italy,  with  a  sort 
of  prescriptive  right  to  direct  the  world,  has  in  most  of  its  depart- 
ments, done  as  much  violence  to  the  principles  of  unity,  grandeur, 
simplicity,  order,  and  cautious  variety,  as  the  false  pretensions 
of  Recitative  have  done  to  the  true  and  natural  system  of  vocal 
expression  both  in  speech  and  song. 

When  Recitative  had,  by  some  capricious  straining  after 
novelty,  been  introduced,  it  became  an  object  with  the  reflective 
part  of  its  votaries,  to  find  some  reason  to  justify  its  use.  With 
this  view,  it  was,  by  a  strange  conceit,  classed  among  the  Imi- 
tative arts :  and  its  peculiar  intonation  was  supposed  to  be  a 
refined  copy  of  common  speech,  raised  to  the  Beau  Ideal  of 
vocal  expression. 

The  following  free  translation  of  an  extract  from  an  article  by 
Marmontel,  in  the  French  Encyclopedia  of  Diderot,  under  the 
word  Recitative,  describes  this  theory.  '  When  the  Italians 
proposed  to  give  a  melody  to  theatric  declamation,  the  purpose 
in  joining  music  with  it,  like  that  in  exalting  prose  into  poetry, 
was  to  embellish  nature  in  imitating  her.  That  is,  to  give  to 
declamation  a  character  more  agreeable  to  the  ear,  and  if  pos- 
sible, more  exciting  to  the  feelings  than  that  of  natural  speech ; 
without  however,  altering  too  far,  the  form  of  the  Archetype ; 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE.  549 

but  so  ordering  the  refined  imitation,  that  it  might  not  obscure 
the  purpose  and  means  of  the  original.'  And  again, — 'If  then 
it  is  true,  that  song,  like  verse  in  relation  to  prose,  does  em- 
bellish speech  in  imitating  it,  thereby  throwing  an  elegant  illusion 
over  its  character,  we  should  not  reject  this  additional  pleasure 
of  taste ;  and  whoever  is  endowed  with  a  delicate  ear,  will  not 
complain  on  hearing  speech  delivered  in  a  singing  voice.' 

We  are  sorry  to  differ  from  M.  Marmontel :  and  though  we 
may  not  have  that  delicate  ear,  and  therefore  may  have  no  right 
to  complain,  yet  with  a  taste  acquired  in  the  school  of  nature, 
we  cannot  approve.  And  here,  notwithstanding  my  early 
resolution,  only  to  observe  and  record,  to  which  however  I  have 
not  been  able  always  to  conform ;  I  feel  myself  compelled  to 
join  something  of  an  argument  with  the  inquiry  into  this  subject. 

The  theory  of  Imitation  assumed  common  conversation,  which 
it  called  the  'natural  tone,'  to  be  the  archetype  or  pattern. 
The  more  deliberate  and  impressive  style  of  the  theatre,  and  of 
public  oratory,  was  called  Declamation ;  and  was  the  First 
remove  in  imitation  from  the  natural  tone.  This  declamation, 
when  chanted  by  the  voice  alone,  or  with  the  instrumental 
company  of  something  like  a  varied  drone-bass,  was  called 
Plain  Recitative :  and  its  further  remove  from  common  speech, 
and  approach  towards  song,  was  the  Second  degree  .of  imitation. 
Recitative  accompanied  by  instruments,  in  a  barred  and  rythmic 
harmony,  formed  the  Third  degree  of  'imitation,  and  a  still 
further  remove  from  the  natural  tone,  ox  common  speech :  while 
Song,  or  what  is  called  Air,  was  supposed  to  have  the  least 
resemblance  to  it. 

Now,  by  the  light  of  our  history,  the  reader  may  perhaps 
perceive  the  fallacy  of  this  assumption.  Language  is  the  sign 
of  the  mind,  not  a  copy  of  it.  Common  speech  then,  is  the 
si  en  of  thought  and  passion,  and  in  no  sense  of  the  term,  an 
imitation  of  them.  Declamation  is  speech  itself,  in  a  more 
impressive  use  of  its  constituents.  Plain  recitative  employs 
some  intonations,  not  used  in  speech,  and  makes  a  false  or 
garbled  application  of  those  that  arc,  and  consequently  is  no 
imitation  of  it.     Accompanied  recitative  has  still  greater  differ- 


550  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

ences  from  speech  than  the  Plain,  though  of  similar  character 
and  effect.  While  Air,  or  Song  having  its  own  peculiar  use  of 
notes  and  intervals,  with  its  own  peculiar  expression,  can  have 
no  resemblance  whatever  to  speech ;  and  cannot  therefore  be  an 
imitation  of  it.  Thus  we  learn  that  common  speech,  is  an 
original  function ;  or,  to'speak  figuratively,  only  copied,  if  at 
all,  from  nature's  secret  pattern  of  its  purpose  :  nor  has  nature 
herself  ever  copied  anything  from  it.  But  conceitful  man,  in 
trying  to  beautify,  by  imitating  her,  as  he  supposed,  at  last 
blundered  into  Recitative ;  the  original  of  which  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  natural  voice  of  all  this  peopled  earth.  And  if 
drawn  by  Plato  from  the  skies, —  when,  in  the  Sacred  name  of 
Urania,  has  any  imagined  audience  of  the  heavenly  choir,  ever 
reported  an  example  of  its  vocal  oddity  and  monotonous  affec- 
tation ! 

Another  reason,  assumed  to  justify  the  use  of  Recitative,  was, 
that  as  speech  is  so  widely  different  from  song,  in  its  effect^  upon 
the  ear ;  and  as  the  louder  sound,  and  stronger  contrast  of 
intonation,  together  with  the  peculiar  and  different  kind  of 
expression  in  song,  are  much  more  striking  than  the  '  natural 
tone,'  it  was  supposed,  there  should  be  some  intermediate  func- 
tion, partaking  of  the  character  of  each,  to  unite  their  succes- 
sion with  less  violence  to  the  ear.  The  instances  of  things, 
both  in  nature  and  art,  in  favor  of  this  idea  of  gradual  transition, 
are  not  more  numerous  than  the  instances  of  abrupt  changes 
that  oppose  it ;  and  as  ijo  argument  can  therefore  be  drawn  from 
this  source,  we  must  consider  the  case  in  itself. 

On  the  ground  then  of  our  history  of  the  voice,  we  cannot 
admit,  there  is  the  least  reason  in  good  taste,  or  the  demands  of 
the  ear,  for  this  interposition  of  Recitative.  How  does  the 
principle  apply  to  that  natural  and  universal  function  of  Speech, 
the  Equable  Concrete,  when  a  gradual  vanish  leads  us  out  o/the' 
full  and  abrupt  opening  of  the  radical,  and  not  gradually  from 
silence,  into  it  ?  Do  the  first  notes  of  song,  in  a  favorite  melody, 
ever  require  more  than  their  own  delightful  impression,  to  intro- 
duce them  from  silence  or  from  speech?  Who,  in  the  Church- 
service,  calls  for  a  motley  midway  of  intonation,  in  passing  from 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 


551 


prayer  and  benediction,  to  the  chant  and  the  anthem  ?  And 
what,  in  the  decent  pride  of  consistency,  becomes  of  this  prin- 
ciple of  gradual  transition,  -when  the  voice  passes  abruptly  from 
silence  to  the  striking  peculiarity  of  Recitative;  and  ao'ain, 
when  in  an  unknown  language,  from  this  gibberish,  both  of 
words  and  expression,  to  the  deafening  jargon  of  melody  and 
harmony,  in  the  over  strained  voices  and  trumjiets  of  a  full 
operatic  chorus.  The  design  of  this  theory  of  mediation,  to 
prevent  the  violent  contrast  between  speech  and  song,  has  ren- 
dered the  whole  course  of  the  Opera,  when  not  broken  by  Air, 
a  continued  monotony,  to  him  whose  ear  has  not  been  contorted 
by  fashion,  and  who  admits  our  view  of  the  principles  of  Drift ; 
for  these  show  that  in  speech,  nature  has  seemed  to  guard  the 
ear  against  the  false,  and  too  frequent  use  of  wide  and  expres- 
sive intervals,  by  making  such  a  use  always  monotonous  and 
offensive.  There  are  no  unnecessary  chasms  in  the  designs  of 
nature,  though  the  works  of  man  are  full  of  them.  When  there- 
fore he  comes  to  study  her  purpose  in  the  voice,  he  will  find  no 
gap  between  speech  and  song  to  be  passed  by  the  Ponticello,  no, 
the  Ponte-rotfo  of  Recitative. 

From  the  violence  offered  by  Recitative,  to  our  vocal  habits, 
St.  Evremond  long  ago  formally  questioned  its  propriety,  and 
its  tasteful  purpose.  This  is  a  very  strong  reason :  for  surely, 
no  one  ever  did  recognize  or  enter-into  the  expression  of  this 
extraordinary  intonation,  if  he  had  not  by  the  authority,  or 
the  daily  practice  of  the  Conservatorio,  been  drilled  out  of  the 
instinct  of  a  natural  ear,  into  a  forced  belief  that  it  is  the 
only  Artistic  style  for  disj)laying  dramatic  and  heroic  feeling. 
But  this  argument,  like  that  against  many  other  things,  at  first 
very  shocking,  may  be  refuted  by  custom  and  time.  Our 
objection  is  drawn  from  another  source.  It  has  been  shown, 
that  speech  being  founded  on  a  universal  and  identical  under- 
standing and  practice  among  mankind,  has  a  system  of  verbal 
and  vocal  signs,  for  thoughts  and  sentiments,  often  indeed 
perverted  and  corrupted,  but  never  overruled  and  clianged  to 
a  different  system :  while  song,  like  instrumental  music,  has  a 
system  of   intonation    altogether    its    own,  for    the    expression 


? 


552  A.  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

of  sentiment  only,  and  totally  independent  of  verbal  signs. 
From  a  close  observation  of  these  distinctions,  and  a  studious 
search  after  any  system  which  might  be  admissible,  we  have 
insisted,  that  besides  these  two  forms,  the  voice  has  no  other 
universal  means  of  expression :  that  from  their  separate  natures, 
their  uses  are  not  compatible  with  each  other,  or  interchangeable : 
and  that  any  attempt  to  institute  other  signs  for  expressing 
thought  and  feeling  in  a  just  and  natural  way,  is  like  an  endea- 
vor to  create  anew  the  voice  and  mind  of  man.  Thus  our 
preceding  objections  are  not  drawn,  except  unconsciously,  from 
a  contest  of  our  own  personal,  with  a  prevailing  conventional 
taste ;  for  we  have  labored  to  found  them  upon  an  analysis  of 
speech  and  song  ;  and  thereby  to  show  that  the  systematic  idea 
of  Recitative,  which  was  designed  to  effect  a  more  exalted  ex- 
pression, by  engrafting  song  on  speech,  is,  by  the  light  of 
nature,  and  the  test  of  an  unenslaved  ear,  after  all  but  a  fiction, 
and  ought  therefore  to  be  a  failure. 

This  conclusion  will  certainly  be  considered  by  the  Masters  of 
music,  and  their  world  of  followers,  as  highly  audacious :  but  it 
has  been  thought  upon  much  longer  with  reference  to  truth,  than 
to  opinion ;  and  we  appeal  from  prescriptive  prejudice,  and  the 
inflexibility  of  the  musical  mind,  to  a  liberal  and  a  docile  sense, 
instructed  by  a  history  of  the  nature  and  inflexible  ordination 
of  the  human  voice.  But  notAvithstanding  all  our  objections, 
Recitative  will  still  continue  to  be  a  fancied  and  therefore 
self-suflicient  delight  of  the  Opera ;  just  as  the  artificial  taste 
for  Alcohol  and  its  associate,  that  Nauseous  "Weed,  will,  among 
the  craving  and  restless  wanderers  in  sensation, —  regardless  of 
the  warning  and  the  penalty  of  disease  and  death, —  continue  to 
supply  the  place  of  sclf-contcnted  purposes,  in  productive  occu- 
pation, and  in  educated  thought. 

We  owe  the  modern  creation,  or  supposed  revival  of  Recita- 
tive, in  part,  to  the  fatal  influence  of  that  vampire  of  classic 
authority,  which,  while  fanning  us  into  a  learned  and  vain- 
glorious stupefaction,  has  for  ages,  on  more  subjects  than  one, 
been  drawing  out  the  life-blood  of  our  intellectual  independence. 
The  ignorance  of  both  the   Greeks  and  the  Romans,  upon  the 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE.  553 

subject  of  the  vocal  functions,  obliged  them  to  describe  their  limited 
perceptions,  by  loose  explanation  and  indefinite  metaphor ;  and 
we  have  been  contented,  in  this  as  in  other  of  their  arts,  to  take 
a  record  of  the  poverty  of  their  knoAvledge,  as  the  historic  scraps 
of  a  system,  regarded  by  the  modern  scholar,  if  not  by  themselves, 
as  little  short  of  perfection.  The  learned  Avorld  has  teased  itself 
into  despair,  by  attempts  to  discover,  wherein  consisted  the 
inimitable  charm  of  Greek  poetical  recitation ;  and  to  reduce  to 
palpable  illustration  the  ordinary  formal  causes  of  that  '  melo- 
dious language,'  which  when  writers  on  the  human  voice  shall 
fully  understand  their  subject,  they  will  admit  to  be  very  little 
more  melodious  than  their  own.  'Among  the  Greeks,'  says 
Rousseau,  and  his  classical  scholarship  and  musical-philosopliy 
may  well  speak  for  the  rest,  in  this  matter,  '  among  the  Greeks, 
all  their  poetry  was  in  recitative.*  And  again ;  '  The  Greeks 
could  sing  in  speaking,  but  among  us,  we  must  either  sing  or 
speak ;  we  cannot  do  both  at  the  same  time.'  With  such  a 
mystical  and  distracting  physiology,  as  here  set  forth,  no  wonder 
that  worshippers  of  the  inexplicable  po^ver  and  perfection  of 
antiquity,  should  have  raised  up  altars  to  this  '  Unknown  God  :' 
nor  that  Pulci  the  poet,  in  reciting  his  Morgante  Maggiore^  as 
we  are  told,  at  the  table  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici,  should  have 
imagined  himself  to  be  the  happy  instrument  of  a  needed  reve- 
lation, of  the  method  of  Grecian  dramatic-recitative,  or  of 
Homer's  declamatory  song. 

If  there  is  any  truth  and  consistency  in  nature,  the  human 
voice  in  its  mechanism,  its  principles,  and  its  uses  for  thought 
and  expression,  has  been  the  same,  wherever  thoughts  and  senti- 
ments have  been  the  same.  And  as  the  earliest  writings,  and 
other  records  of  the  earliest  nations,  exhibit  the  same  character 
of  thought  and  sentiment,  that  prevails  at  the  present  day,  we 
must  conclude, —  if  the  Greeks  did  not  use  their  voices,  accord- 
ino-  to  the  laws  of  nature,  as  we  acknowledge  and  fulfill  them, — 
they  must,  by  our  decision  at  least,  have  used  them  improperly ; 
and  thus  have  thwarted  the  purpose  of  the  voice.  When  there- 
fore, in  the  contemptuous  language  of  classical  scholarship,  we 
are  told,  we  cannot  speak  and  sing  at  the  same  time,  we  scholars 
36 


554  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

of  nature  and  inquiry,  must  saj,  the  Greeks  could  not  speak 
and  sing  at  the  same  time. 

Notwithstanding  the  universal  confidence  in  the  taste  of  the 
Greeks,  we  cannot  believe,  thej  were  free  from  gross  and 
unnatural  faults,  in  their  Art  of  the  Voice,  on  which  they  have 
left  us  neither  method  nor  rule :  since  we  know  how  they  vio- 
lated their  own  established  principles,  in  some  of  their  boasted 
and  well-recorded  arts. 

The  selfish  and  tasteless  purpose  of  the  Statesman,  the  osten- 
tatious authority,  and  equal  selfishness  of  the  Priesthood,  and 
the  inflexible  formality  of  a  Ceremonial  worship,  may,  in  the 
Vocal-Ritual,  as  well  as  in  Temple-Architecture  and  Sculpture, 
have  continued  the  enormities  of  some  ruder  age,  or  courted  a 
time-serving  variety  in  the  fashion  of  newer  faults ;  all  in 
flagrant,  but  unconscious  inconsistency  with  their  methodic 
principles  of  Fitness,  Unity,  Grandeur,  Harmony,  Proportion, 
and  Grace.  In  proof,  let  us  learn  how  this  fitness,  and  unity, 
and  grandeur  were  marred,  even  by  the  renowned  Phidias,  in 
his  renowned  Minerva,  by  assigning  her  a  labor  of  strength,  not 
of  wisdom,  in  balancing  a  victory  on  her  palm :  with  a  sculp- 
tured form  made  up  of  ivory  and  gold,  surrounded  by  an  enriched 
and  costly  farrago  of  accessory  decoration,  all  congenial  indeed 
with  the  pomp  and  vanity  of  the  Priest  and  the  Devotee ;  but 
to  the  eye  of  an  uncontrolled  Grecian  Artist,  refusing,  in  mate- 
rial, or  color,  or  accessory,  or  form,  any  unitizing  relations, 
either  of  harmony  or  contrast.  Let  us  learn  too,  how  fitness 
and  propriety  were  outraged  by  discordantly  perching  a  statue 
aloft,  on  each  angle  of  a  Doric  pediment;  and  by  striping  the 
immaculate  whiteness  of  an  external  entablature  with  some 
gaudy  and  dis-gracing,  paint.  In  further  and  still  existing 
proof,  let  us  go  ourselves  to  the  celebrated  Erictheura,  on  that 
all-observed  Athenian  Acropolis; — bearing  in  mind  the  unity, 
simplicity,  order,  proportion,  and  symmetry,  which  in  a  Peripteral 
Temple,  impressed  themselves,  all  at  once,  on  the  eye  of  the 
beholder; — and  see  those  i)rinciples  neglected  in  this  unbalanced 
plan,  as  if  unknown  or  forgotten ;  a  plan  confusing  even  to  us, 
but  to  a   Grecian  Artist,  unbiased  by  obligation  to  the  priest- 


A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE.  555 

hood  or  the  people,  presenting  only  the  distraction  of  undeter- 
mined entrances,  fronts,  and  sides  ;  and  of  excrescences,  vainly 
claiming  by  some  trifling  merits  in  detail,  to  be  parts  of  the 
■whole.  But  we  have  not  yet  done  with  this  un-grecian  Erictheum, 
Its  Caryatid  portico,  if  designed  as  an  emblem  of  Grecian  enmity, 
has  by  that  enmity,  taught  us  the  uncertainty  of  Grecian  taste. 
AVe  still  see  in  columns,  changed  to  Caryan  women,  with  the 
conceit  of  reeded  draperies,  how  these  '  Arts  of  Taste  that 
civilize  mankind,'  while  leading  on  to  the  grotesque,  forgot  their 
rules,  not  only  of  unity,  fitness,  order  and  propriety,  but  of 
humanity  itself,  in  recording  even  in  marble,  an  ungenerous  and 
degrading  vengeance  to  the  memory  of  a  fallen  foe. 

Thus  if  we  weigh  the  boasted  merits  of  Grecian  taste  in  its 
own  balance,  we  may,  from  some  overpoise  of  prejudice,  or 
authority  on  its  part,  often  find  it  wanting.  On  the  subject  of 
the  voice,  the  Greeks  having  no  oratorical  physiology  as  we  may 
call  it,  could  have  had  no  well  founded  or  influential  rules.  AVe 
are  free  therefore  to  imagine  grosser  violations  of  taste  in  the 
practice  of  their  speech,  than  we  find  in  the  choice  productions 
of  some  of  their  arts,  which  we  know  to  have  been  directed  by 
principles  deep-founded  and  exact.  If  the  history  of  the  voice 
contained  in  this  work,  authorizes  an  opinion,  we  may  rest  in  a 
belief,  that  could  we  have  a  dreaming  levclation  of  the  manner 
of  their  hierophants,  orators,  players,  sophists,  street-criers,  and 
school-boys,  we  would  awake  to  record  a  chapter  of  criticism, 
very  much  like  our  fiftieth  section,  on  the  faults  of  readers  in 
the  nineteenth  century. 

The  style  of  that  vocal  perfection  which  the  Roman  eulo- 
irist,  by  the  privilege  of  his  poetry,  figuratively  ascribes  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  Muse,  may,  in  the  chant  of  the  Ode\nn,  the 
declamations  of  the  Theatre,  and  the  recitation  of  the  Olympic 
Games,  have  been  with  the  Greeks,  a  greater  departure  from 
the  rule  of  nature  in  the  human  voice,  than  they  sometimes 
exhibited,  in  a  departure  from  their  high  and  all-sufficient 
principle  of  unity  in  Material,  by  the  discordant  assemblage, — 
in  their  most  celebrated  Statues, —  of  gold,  and  ebony,  marble, 
ivory  and  wood:  or  in  the  viulation  of  their  own  eternal  rules 


556  A  BRIEF  ANALYSIS  OF  RECITATIVE. 

of  simplicity,  grandeur,  unity,  decorum,  and  grace,  exhibited  in 
the  Erictheum, —  placed,  as  it  would  seem,  to  make  its  faults 
more  glaring, —  placed  in  'audacious  neighborhood,'  beside  the 
all-surpassing  Parthenon. 

I  return  from  this  digression,  to  remark,  that  ignorant  as  we 
are  of  the  real  vocal  practice  of  the  Greeks,  the  reader  who  has 
attentively  considered,  and  who  comprehends  the  descriptions, 
in  this  essay,  will  be  satisfied,  to  conjecture  for  himself,  what 
they  did  if  it  was  wrong,  and  to  decide  what  it  was,  if  they  knew, 
and  did  what  is  right. 

If  then  Signor  Pulci  did  delight  the  adulated  and  munificent 
Lorenzo,  by  the  recovery  of  some  lost  conventicle  or  canting 
tune,  in  vogue  with  the  ancient  Altar  or  the  Stage ;  it  might 
allow  the  conjecture,  that  some  Recitative-corruption  of  speech 
had  come  down  by  tradition  from  Homer  or  Tyrteus,  or  was,  in 
latter  days,  by  some  capricious  influence,  imposed  upon  the 
servile  ear :  just  as  the  natural  laws  of  vocal  expression  are  in 
this  generation,  overborne  with  like  distortion,  by  the  inveterate 
dogmas  of  the  composer,  the  masked  tyranny  of  fashion,  and 
the  consenting  slavery  of  mankind.* 

•  I  once  contemplated  subjoining  to  this  essay,  some  remarks  on  the  subject 
of  Greek  accent.  But  perhaps  the  obscurity,  inconsistencies,  and  meager 
philosophy  of  this  worried  topic  of  classical  heresy  and  faith,  are  now  suflB- 
ciently  apparent,  by  the  light  of  our  preceding  analysis.  The  self-delusions 
of  national  vanity  are  peculiar  to  no  age  or  people:  and  one  can  see  about  him 
every  day,  enough  of  the  boast  of  empires  and  of  men,  to  make  him  scrutinize 
the  rolls  of  fame,  blazoned  by  the  same  genus  of  vaingloi-y  and  of  credulity, 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

We  know  all  the  stories  about  barbarian  ambassadors  being  delighted  with 
the  mere  music  of  a  language,  they  did  not  understand :  and  of  that  universal 
acuteness  and  'proud  judgment  of  the  ear,'  which  made  the  Athenian  herb- 
women  and  porters  speak  with  all  the  purity  of  the  Academy.  But  we  should 
have  other  proof  than  the  report  of  Greek  grammarians:  and  should  find 
them  writing  with  more  fulness  and  precision,  on  a  subject  they  are  said  to 
have  understood  so  well,  before  we  believe  that  in  this  matter  they  were  at  all 
superior  to  ourselves. 

If  one  were  even  disposed  to  believe  in  the  vocal  perfection  of  the  Greeks, 
through  any  other  than  their  own  testimony,  he  might  well  question  the 
authority  of  their  Roman  eulogists :  since  they  themselves,  the  pupils  of  the 
Greeks,  display  no  better  analysis  or  system  in  their  institute  of  elocution.     We 


CONCLUSION.  557 

Here  I  conclude  the  cursory  view  of  the  physiological  func- 
tions of  Song  and  Recitative:  having  avoided  therein,  every 
thing  like  a  practical  consideration  of  the  subject.  Some  one 
better  qualified  than  myself  may  be  disposed  to  prosecute  the 
inquiry.  In  the  first  part  of  this  work,  the  nature  of  expression 
in  speech  is  set  forth  by  an  elementary  description,  and  detailed 
illustration  of  its  particular  forms.  An  investigation  of  the 
nature  of  expression  in  Song  by  the  light  of  that  description, 
and  according  to  the  hints  here  thrown  out,  would  be  interest- 
ing, and  might  be  successful.  Nothing  could  give  me  more 
pleasure  than  to  assist  in  its  development.  But  this  would  lead 
me  from  some  other  designs  of  duty ;  and  I  have  too  impatient 
a  perception  of  the  wasted  experience,  and  profitless  logic, 
which  daily  present  themselves  in  the  changeful  errors  of  my 
profession,  not  to  desire  to  use  in  its  service,  a  method  of  phi- 
losophy which  I  hope  will  be  found  to  have  been  effectual  here. 

For  reasons  that  are  known  to  more  than  to  myself,  but  which 
the  public  need  not  at  present  know,  I  laid  aside  a  Practical 
work  on  Medicine,  with  the  view  of  completing  this :  and  I  am 
now  going  to  resume  it. 

It  is  more  than  twenty-seven  years  since  the  preceding 
sentence  was  written,  in  the  first  edition  of  this  Essay.  After 
its  publication,  I  did  resume  the  subject  to  which  I  then  alluded. 
Its  broad  design  was  arranged  in  early  life ;  and  much  of  its 

may  fairly  estimate  their  discrimination,  when  with  the  same  pen  that  deals 
out  the  extravagancies  of  praise  upon  the  oratorical  action  of  their  master?, 
they  gravely  give  us,  as  proof  too  of  their  own  nicety  in  vocal  matters,  the 
story  of  one  of  their  famous  orators  having  occasion  for  a  Pitch-pipe:  to  enable 
him  to  recognize  his  own  voice,  and  to  govern  his  melody,  through  the  more 
acute  perceptions  of  a  slave,  who  now  and  then  blew  this  little  regulating 
trumpet  at  his  elbow !  ! 

Should  I  be  obliged  to  hold  an  opinion  upon  the  subject  of  ancient  accent : 
the  fixed  appropriation  of  its  acute,  grave,  and  circumflex  signs  to  sylla- 
bles, being  utterly  inconsistent  with  a  proper  or  elegant  system  of  intonation, 
would  induce  me  to  believe,— the  Greeks  and  Romans  did  always  mean  stress, 
by  their  idea  of  the  accentual  function :  but  that  they  had  connected  with  it  a 
crude  theory  of  pitch,  formed  perhaps  out  of  some  fragments  of  Egyptian  science, 
which  Pythagoras,  or  whoever  imported  them,  did  not  thoroughly  understand. 


T 


558  CONCLUSION. 

detail  was  afterwards  executed.  Having  however  resolved  to 
pursue  that  subject  by  observation  alone  ;  and  being  unwilling 
either  to  throw  time  away,  or  to  be  forced  into  wasteful  con- 
tentions, without  even  a  distant  prospect  of  usefulness,  I  long 
since  laid  it  aside  for  subjects,  that,  if  not  contributive  to  others, 
might  at  least  be  instructive  and  agreeable  to  myself.  Its  pur- 
pose was,  on  the  ground  of  the  method  of  discovery  adopted  in 
this  essay,  to  propose  to  the  Practical  Department  of  Medicine, 
the  means  for  inquiring  into  the  deep-laid  causes  of  its  uncon- 
scious theoretic  habits  ;  its  sectarian  contrarieties  ;  its  perpetual 
changes  in  opinion  and  practice  ;  and  its  restless,  but  well-meant 
endeavors  in  the  wrong  way,  to  accomplish  something  right  and 
needful  for  itself. 

To  obtain  if  possible,  a  hearing  in  a  Cause  so  apparently 
hopeless,  I  laid  before  the  Profession  the  preceding  Example 
of  philosophic  investigation.  This  was  not  done  with  the 
least  thought  to  improve  its  Elocution ;  but  to  suggest,  from  the 
successful  result  of  an  inquiry  into  one  of  its  own  subjects,  a  like 
inquiry  into  some  of  those  versatile  fictions,  which  under  the 
name  of  knowledge,  have  to  no  purpose,  occupied  it  so  long  ; 
and  which  have,  to  tbe  plain  observation  of  the  world,  been  so 
long  a  subject  of  well-deserved  satire.  In  this  object,  how- 
ever, I  have  failed.  For  though  it  was  submitted  as  an  original 
view  of  the  proper  Pln'siology  of  the  voice,  yet  with  a  Census 
of  more  than  fort}^  thousand  Physicians,  in  the  United  States, 
I  do  not  know,  nor  have  I  heard-of  one,  who  has  so  far  looked 
into  it,  as  to  have  ri.sked  his  Theoretic  Life,  by  catching  a  sin- 
gle infectious  idea  from  its  adopted  Baconian  method  ;  a  method 
that  did  hope  to  recommend  itself  by  what  it  had  done. 

To  my  intelligent  readers  of  another  class,  I  may  remark, — 
and  it  will  perhaps  be  understood, —  that  widely  different  as 
the  Essay  they  have  just  finished  is,  in  logic  and  in  practical 
character,  from  the  Old  Elocution  ;  there  would  be  a  still  greater 
difference  between  some  Neio  Order  of  3Iedicine,  founded  on 
the  method  of  this  Essay, —  and  the  disorderly  opinions  and  prac- 
tice of  any  of  the  countless  Heterogeneous  Systems  of  the  day  : 
Systems  under  which,  their  votaries  must  continue,  as  they  have 


CONCLUSION.  559 

always  clone,  to  pretend  to  know  more  than  they  do  know,  and 
affect  to  perform  more  than  with  their  jealous  contentions  among 
themselves,  they  ever  can.  Let  them  then  change  their  narrow 
method  of  observing  and  thinking,  for  one  of  Baconian  breadth 
in  observation  and  thought :  and  thus  Truth, —  who  in  her  purity 
and  plainness  seems  always  to  have  avoided  them, —  when  no 
longer  under  the  fear  of  being  degraded  by  Popularity,  and 
mystified  by  the  interests  of  Professorial  Schools,  will,  Avith  but 
an  experimental  and  observative  look  of  invitation  on  their 
part,  lose  all  her  shyness,  and  freely  afford  her  restorative  assist- 
ance in  their  present  theoretic  extremity. 


THE   END. 


J- 

I 


I 


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